I recently started my group on Masks of Nyarlathotep, using Call of Cthulhu (CoC) 7th edition rules. It has been a while since I played or run any games for the CoC system and not much has changed for 7th edition. Most notably all characteristics are now percentile based to mirror up to the skill system this game uses, overall this makes things much cleaner and user friendly.
None of my players had previously played CoC and are genuinely unfamiliar with the rule system and the lore as a whole, this is probably a good thing since it makes the fear and surprises in-game that much meaningful. I decided to do a session zero to walk through character creation as a group and go over rules briefly, I needed the refresher as well to be completely honest. My players had fun getting into the role of their 1920's investigators and with that, we set off for adventure.
The 7th edition remake of Masks has a prologue chapter to get the players better associated with Jackson Elias, the Peru chapter. With some brief introductions and character fluff out of the way, the group was introduced to Jackson and the main antagonist of this chapter of the campaign, Augustus Larkin, a man under the influence of Nyarlathotep. His hidden agenda is to free the Father of Maggots, a primal mask / avatar of Nyarlathotep that is imprisoned in Peru. Luis de Mendoza is Larkin's accomplish and peruvian vampire of sorts, these creatures will turn out to be primary combative encounters throughout this chapter.
The players were hired on to help excavate the site wherein the Father of Maggots was contained under the guise of "let's get some gold". Some good roleplay exchanges led to some immediate trust issues with Larkin which were further amplified based on information that Jackson provided to the group away from Larkin and de Mendoza. The group had a couple of days before the expedition set out for highlands of Southern Peru, with some nudging from Jackson Elias, they decided to visit the local university and a friend of Jackson, Professor Sanchez, lead on Peruvian history and archaeology, to do some research. My players were all coming from and RPG background of "kill the monster, get the treasure" so a lot of this investigative type style of play was new to them, so having Jackson tag along with the group for those prompts and hints helped out in this section of the campaign.
During this visit, the party had their first run with the horrors of CoC. While on errand for the professor, they discover Sanchez's assistant Riza drained of all fat in the basement archive area, some creature had torn open her chest, sucking the literal life out of her. Some of the group rushed back to the Professor, while one of my players who happened to be playing a doctor, performed a quick autopsy on the corpse of Riza. This particular player did a great job with the role play interaction and for the most part sanity rolls had been made at this point.
The primary mechanic that grinds down and likely defeats the investigators in CoC is the sanity check. All investigators have a starting sanity score and through play and encounters with the mythos of the game, that number slowly depletes, with major losses prompting bouts of temporary and indefinite madness which further fuel the role playing for this game. I've always been a fan of normal people in abnormal situations for my games, even in D&D, so to see an actual mechanic account for this is great.
Back to the action...those checking in on the professor arrive just in time to find that some man had "kissed" him. The Peruvian vampire nemesis in this scenario, de Mendoza, is able to feed larvae to a host that in turn transforms the unwilling victim into a vampire themselves. The group gives chase, but are unable to catch up with the man before he disappears into the busy streets of Lima. The same doctor discovers a moving mass beneath the skin of professor, the larvae, but decides to not take action to remove it...guess that won't come back to trouble him later...the group is strongly suspecting the man was in fact de Mendoza, the accomplice of Larkin, they decided some direct questions with the expedition leader were in order.
Larkin and de Mendoza had separate rooms in a close proximity hotel to that of the group, but their need for privacy would soon be evident to the players upon their visit. The players find Larkin in his room, shades drawn in darkness, in a heroine induced sleep...wakening as they stumble into the room he pleads innocence and plays the dumb card in regards to de Mendoza's true nature...the investigators continued to press which prompt Nyarlathotep to take over Larkin. Eyes turning an fully black, something almost alien, his posture and demeanor growing as his voice deepens to a commanding tone. I had one of the players make a sanity roll upon seeing his true visage, to which he annoyingly asked if there was a saving throw....too bad junior, welcome to Call of Cthulhu...to be continued....
Friday, September 27, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ?!?! GenCon and RPG play updates
Long break from posting on the blog, but back to add some more and catch up the reader as to what I've been up to and playing the past few months. I say this like you care....but here goes.
Firstly, I went to my first GenCon in August with several people from my tabletop group. It was an amazing, albeit expensive trip (mostly from all of the cool new games I purchased there, look for some reviews). The crowds were insane and I was amazed at the scope and scale of the convention area itself. Several blocks in square footage all dedicated to gaming. The vendor hall was incredible as well, I had the best time just walking booth to booth, doing demo's, talking to the publishers, and just seeing all of the new amazing product offerings there. It is honestly hard to take it all in for those who have never been.
I managed to do several events there as well....True Dungeon, The Starfinder Society year finally scenario (despite my hatred of Pathfinder this was actually a pretty cool experience), and a couple of one-shot games. I wish there were more hours in the day, but if you have never been, I recommend doing it once if you're into the hobby. Definitely a bucket list item checked off for me.
My tabletop group finished up our run of the Dragon Heist campaign in 5E. Going to be honest, I could not wait to finish this one. Definitely not a fan of that adventure, but my players had a pretty good time with it. The players in my group were pretty cut-throat in this one in regards to the type of PC they were playing, this made it fun as I added a few twist to account for others in the city you wanted a stake to the hidden gold, eventually ending the campaign with a bit of a rift within the party in regards to doing the right or wrong thing. It was actually a pretty good conclusion to the adventure, but it took some work to get there. Good job to my players on this one!
I needed a break from the typical fantasy archetype and really I just needed a break from 5E...still not a fan.....so in the past couple of months I started a campaign of Call of Cthulhu. Currently I'm taking my group through the first part of Masks of Nyarlathotep, though they have not figured this out yet. The CoC roleplaying game is a fantastic one, it is much simplistic and needs to a much better role playing experience overall. Some of the players in my group were a bit hesitant to start, but all are now pretty invested in their characters and the story at large. Masks is a tremendous campaign and definitely worthy of the high praise it has gotten over the years...not sure if we'll finish or not, but definitely look for an upcoming review soon!
Firstly, I went to my first GenCon in August with several people from my tabletop group. It was an amazing, albeit expensive trip (mostly from all of the cool new games I purchased there, look for some reviews). The crowds were insane and I was amazed at the scope and scale of the convention area itself. Several blocks in square footage all dedicated to gaming. The vendor hall was incredible as well, I had the best time just walking booth to booth, doing demo's, talking to the publishers, and just seeing all of the new amazing product offerings there. It is honestly hard to take it all in for those who have never been.
I managed to do several events there as well....True Dungeon, The Starfinder Society year finally scenario (despite my hatred of Pathfinder this was actually a pretty cool experience), and a couple of one-shot games. I wish there were more hours in the day, but if you have never been, I recommend doing it once if you're into the hobby. Definitely a bucket list item checked off for me.
My tabletop group finished up our run of the Dragon Heist campaign in 5E. Going to be honest, I could not wait to finish this one. Definitely not a fan of that adventure, but my players had a pretty good time with it. The players in my group were pretty cut-throat in this one in regards to the type of PC they were playing, this made it fun as I added a few twist to account for others in the city you wanted a stake to the hidden gold, eventually ending the campaign with a bit of a rift within the party in regards to doing the right or wrong thing. It was actually a pretty good conclusion to the adventure, but it took some work to get there. Good job to my players on this one!
I needed a break from the typical fantasy archetype and really I just needed a break from 5E...still not a fan.....so in the past couple of months I started a campaign of Call of Cthulhu. Currently I'm taking my group through the first part of Masks of Nyarlathotep, though they have not figured this out yet. The CoC roleplaying game is a fantastic one, it is much simplistic and needs to a much better role playing experience overall. Some of the players in my group were a bit hesitant to start, but all are now pretty invested in their characters and the story at large. Masks is a tremendous campaign and definitely worthy of the high praise it has gotten over the years...not sure if we'll finish or not, but definitely look for an upcoming review soon!
Monday, December 17, 2018
Back to basics
If you read this blog, you can likely ascertain my dislike for 5E. Granted it has some really good things, I love the character options and ability for my players to customize their characters with nifty mechanical customizations. What's really being lost though is the true development of the character themselves from a role play perspective. Hell, they even have mechanics for background now, though I've always felt that background should emerge through play anyways. And lord, don't even get me started on Pathfinder....I get it, some of the newer players love all of this crunch and cool character "abilities". The more I play though, the more that the B/X or BECMI versions of the game call my name for how much better they run dungeons for example.
I like to see my players engaged and putting thought into their actions, the more you hand over to a roll of the dice, the less fun and risk is being applied to the game. If you have not given it a try, there a ton of great retro-clones of the old rules out there these days. You can even get a POD version of the epic D&D rules cyclopedia...seriously, go give it a shot!
I like to see my players engaged and putting thought into their actions, the more you hand over to a roll of the dice, the less fun and risk is being applied to the game. If you have not given it a try, there a ton of great retro-clones of the old rules out there these days. You can even get a POD version of the epic D&D rules cyclopedia...seriously, go give it a shot!
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist....a quick review
I am in the midst of running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, one of latest releases from WoTC, for my group. Here is a quick review and thoughts on this adventure. First off, you may have heard this in other reviews, but the adventure itself is not so much of a heist...think of it as a race against an enemy faction. This adventure is for characters level 1-5.
OK, so the adventure itself involves and immerses the players in the city of Waterdeep, a large city on the Northern Coast of WoTC's love-child the Forgotten Realms. Included within the adventure itself is a pretty lengthy gazetteer on the city itself describing the various guilds, history and people of the city itself. Pretty good information to help bring some more details and environment to your game, but certainly nothing required. The adventure embarks from the famous Yawning Portal tavern and basically rides the rails from start to finish. The DM is given the option of choosing from four villains that will oppose the characters throughout the later part of the adventure. Each of the big-bads are definitely a significant challenge for any group player character in this book....in fact...any party going head-on that them or entering their "lair" is going to get wrecked, guaranteed.
Much of the adventure has the players going from area to area within the city investigating the workings of a plot to uncover a vast fortune of gold hidden within the city, once the players discover the plot, it is a race to find this treasure before those with more nefarious plans reach it. Along the way, players will encounter the rainbow of inclusion which is WoTC D&D these days...I'll just leave it at that....did I meantin that you can make your own D&D game into anything you want already? OK, moving along...There are some good elements included in this adventure. The second phase of the adventure introduces the various Forgotten Realm factions (Zhentarim, Force Grey, Harpers, etc.) which take interest in the doings of the players, opening the potential to join and gain prestige with these factions. This has a very sandbox feel within the city and a skilled DM could have some great fun, pitting the interest of these factions against the various members of his party for some great inter-party role play and conflict.
The adventure is decent, but no where close to great...err really even good if we are being honest. A lot of railroad and heavy handed removal of player agency are worked into the story is a bummer. Again, book use at the table is just dreadful from a WoTC product, expect lots of page flipping to get in sync with maps and room descriptions where needed....Come on WoTC if you are only going to release one or two books a year, at least make them decent....the indie and OSR community are absolutely killing them as far as quality of content and book quality, it is not even close! If you're a huge fan of the Forgotten Realms or currently running a campaign set in that world, this book may be worth a pickup....if not....well, look else where.
OK, so the adventure itself involves and immerses the players in the city of Waterdeep, a large city on the Northern Coast of WoTC's love-child the Forgotten Realms. Included within the adventure itself is a pretty lengthy gazetteer on the city itself describing the various guilds, history and people of the city itself. Pretty good information to help bring some more details and environment to your game, but certainly nothing required. The adventure embarks from the famous Yawning Portal tavern and basically rides the rails from start to finish. The DM is given the option of choosing from four villains that will oppose the characters throughout the later part of the adventure. Each of the big-bads are definitely a significant challenge for any group player character in this book....in fact...any party going head-on that them or entering their "lair" is going to get wrecked, guaranteed.
Much of the adventure has the players going from area to area within the city investigating the workings of a plot to uncover a vast fortune of gold hidden within the city, once the players discover the plot, it is a race to find this treasure before those with more nefarious plans reach it. Along the way, players will encounter the rainbow of inclusion which is WoTC D&D these days...I'll just leave it at that....did I meantin that you can make your own D&D game into anything you want already? OK, moving along...There are some good elements included in this adventure. The second phase of the adventure introduces the various Forgotten Realm factions (Zhentarim, Force Grey, Harpers, etc.) which take interest in the doings of the players, opening the potential to join and gain prestige with these factions. This has a very sandbox feel within the city and a skilled DM could have some great fun, pitting the interest of these factions against the various members of his party for some great inter-party role play and conflict.
The adventure is decent, but no where close to great...err really even good if we are being honest. A lot of railroad and heavy handed removal of player agency are worked into the story is a bummer. Again, book use at the table is just dreadful from a WoTC product, expect lots of page flipping to get in sync with maps and room descriptions where needed....Come on WoTC if you are only going to release one or two books a year, at least make them decent....the indie and OSR community are absolutely killing them as far as quality of content and book quality, it is not even close! If you're a huge fan of the Forgotten Realms or currently running a campaign set in that world, this book may be worth a pickup....if not....well, look else where.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Tomb of Horrors, B/X thoughts and recap, Part 2
When next we pick up the action as the party works their way though the Tomb of Horrors. After having decimated their numbers in the chapel, our next session started a few less players based on scheduling. The good thing is that this really is not an encounter based dungeon...the challenge is in the player skill and problem solving.
I have to say Gygax purposely placed a lot of got you moments in this adventure and there are several instances where a player could reasonably come to the conclusion that they had conquered the tomb....the crypt with the zombie Acererak being one such instance....my group managed to skip over this, finding the secret door before descending down to that encounter. That is another thing with the tomb, there are so many dead-ends if you do not find the secret door...using the Labyrinth Lord rules, this was often a 1 in 6 chance. If my group reasonably described their intentions and point of interest with their character was doing, I was fairly lenient with secret door discovery. There are much more nefarious and deadly things to encounter here...
On to the three vat room and the first key. The players managed to figure this one out pretty quickly, using the tools available to them to pull the key from the acid vat with minimal issues. I really loved these puzzle / problem solving rooms, I think more dungeons need these in some of the current modules. The problem of course being that, there is probably some stupid roll that said character make now without having to describe and solve the matter themselves....not a fan 5th edition! I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but things like this really show the dominance of the retro clones and older edition of the games. Simpler and more involved game play!
My group managed to breeze through the next couple of hallways, rooms and traps...screw you flying carpet, that thing was the MVP of this dungeon. The green slime room, was fun, but my group was on their toes and figured out the trap before passing through a likely instant death scenario. They had a strategy of basically sending the most durable / "less likely to die" party member ahead into the corridors and rooms and then trying to save them as the trap was sprung or after the effects had been applied. The guys were really lucky throughout in regards to some of the save or die situations as well, but that's part of the thrill of it.
One of the rooms I was most excited about, but turned out to be a total let down based on my groups adapting play style was the juggernaut room. But, in a way I was excited to see them learning and becoming true old-school role players...not much further, they were closing in on the final rooms of the Tomb of Horrors.....
I have to say Gygax purposely placed a lot of got you moments in this adventure and there are several instances where a player could reasonably come to the conclusion that they had conquered the tomb....the crypt with the zombie Acererak being one such instance....my group managed to skip over this, finding the secret door before descending down to that encounter. That is another thing with the tomb, there are so many dead-ends if you do not find the secret door...using the Labyrinth Lord rules, this was often a 1 in 6 chance. If my group reasonably described their intentions and point of interest with their character was doing, I was fairly lenient with secret door discovery. There are much more nefarious and deadly things to encounter here...
On to the three vat room and the first key. The players managed to figure this one out pretty quickly, using the tools available to them to pull the key from the acid vat with minimal issues. I really loved these puzzle / problem solving rooms, I think more dungeons need these in some of the current modules. The problem of course being that, there is probably some stupid roll that said character make now without having to describe and solve the matter themselves....not a fan 5th edition! I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but things like this really show the dominance of the retro clones and older edition of the games. Simpler and more involved game play!
My group managed to breeze through the next couple of hallways, rooms and traps...screw you flying carpet, that thing was the MVP of this dungeon. The green slime room, was fun, but my group was on their toes and figured out the trap before passing through a likely instant death scenario. They had a strategy of basically sending the most durable / "less likely to die" party member ahead into the corridors and rooms and then trying to save them as the trap was sprung or after the effects had been applied. The guys were really lucky throughout in regards to some of the save or die situations as well, but that's part of the thrill of it.
One of the rooms I was most excited about, but turned out to be a total let down based on my groups adapting play style was the juggernaut room. But, in a way I was excited to see them learning and becoming true old-school role players...not much further, they were closing in on the final rooms of the Tomb of Horrors.....
Thursday, December 6, 2018
DM advice: let the players make the story
Confession time...when I came back to the hobby about 10 years ago there was something I struggled with as a DM. I was guilty of being too heavy-handed with my story, my campaign....and I think this is something that not only myself, but others can relate to or have dealt with.
This campaign, this fantastic world I had envisioned and worked tirelessly to create...full of cool, dangerous and exotic locations and people....You just want the players to see it all, know the story you've created, I get it. I wanted the same. But, don't do it...let the players chase after that wacky detail that you totally do not have prepared, let them kill off your finely crafted NPC (the one that guides them to the next part of the journey), let the story be theirs.
This takes a bit of restraint and definitely the ability to improve and wing-it, but it is so worth it. In the end this will make the story that much better and rewarding for the players, as I ran my group through my Shadowvale campaign, this was something I definitely struggled with and at times there was a bit of removal of player agency, which to me in the cardinal sin of the dungeon master.
But the more I've DM'd since my return, the more I've been able to let go and just let my players play in the world as they see fit. Jeff Reints blog and his recent book, Broodmother Skyfortress, have really helped to sharpen my skills in this approach. Don't be afraid to blow up and wreck your world!
Inspiration for this blog from the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPqB7DH94c&t=71s
Go check it out and support a great channel.
This campaign, this fantastic world I had envisioned and worked tirelessly to create...full of cool, dangerous and exotic locations and people....You just want the players to see it all, know the story you've created, I get it. I wanted the same. But, don't do it...let the players chase after that wacky detail that you totally do not have prepared, let them kill off your finely crafted NPC (the one that guides them to the next part of the journey), let the story be theirs.
This takes a bit of restraint and definitely the ability to improve and wing-it, but it is so worth it. In the end this will make the story that much better and rewarding for the players, as I ran my group through my Shadowvale campaign, this was something I definitely struggled with and at times there was a bit of removal of player agency, which to me in the cardinal sin of the dungeon master.
But the more I've DM'd since my return, the more I've been able to let go and just let my players play in the world as they see fit. Jeff Reints blog and his recent book, Broodmother Skyfortress, have really helped to sharpen my skills in this approach. Don't be afraid to blow up and wreck your world!
Inspiration for this blog from the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPqB7DH94c&t=71s
Go check it out and support a great channel.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Christmas wishlist
It's that time of the year again...when we all gather with family, friends....share tales of yesteryear and ohh...what's that you say, where are my gifts? OK OK....let's talk about things we want.
So I'm currently backing several Kickstarters that I'm excited to get my hands on sometime next year...hopefully...Matt Colville's "Stronghold and Followers", "Demon City" by Zak S., and "Tegal Manor Returns" by Frog God Games. Those are the most notable releases that I'm aware of and excited for going into 2019. Outside of that...I may finally cash in several items on my drivethrurpg wishlist. Top of the list would be Dwimmermount and The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia.
What I'm really wishing for is to keep my current group of players happy and motivated going into and through next year with our current campaign which is Waterdeep: Dragonheist...perhaps moving to the new Undermountain release Dungeon of the Mad Mage after that. I'd like to do start up another group either playing some more of the FFG Star Wars or running a B/X or Labyrinth Lord version of Barrowmaze as well. Those may have to go online though....we'll see.
So, what about you? Any items on the wishlist? What games are you wanting to run going into next year?
So I'm currently backing several Kickstarters that I'm excited to get my hands on sometime next year...hopefully...Matt Colville's "Stronghold and Followers", "Demon City" by Zak S., and "Tegal Manor Returns" by Frog God Games. Those are the most notable releases that I'm aware of and excited for going into 2019. Outside of that...I may finally cash in several items on my drivethrurpg wishlist. Top of the list would be Dwimmermount and The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia.
What I'm really wishing for is to keep my current group of players happy and motivated going into and through next year with our current campaign which is Waterdeep: Dragonheist...perhaps moving to the new Undermountain release Dungeon of the Mad Mage after that. I'd like to do start up another group either playing some more of the FFG Star Wars or running a B/X or Labyrinth Lord version of Barrowmaze as well. Those may have to go online though....we'll see.
So, what about you? Any items on the wishlist? What games are you wanting to run going into next year?
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