Roleplaying
Nov. 13th, 2008 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackTonight, I went along to a CURS one-off event, an introduction to call of Cthulhu. This is a notorious system -- based on the Lovecraft mythos, where a group of fairly ordinary citizens investigate some creepy happening, find very weird occult shit, and slowly are all killed off or driven mad.
I very much wanted to take the opportunity to see what it was like. Although it also supports long campaigns quite successfully, I don't think I'd want to take it up often, but it's quite moving to see. Obviously a lot of the creepiness is in the style and adventure design -- in any game you COULD have creepy things happen. But the system is based around it.
The system is apparently quite simple from a mechanics standpoint -- or at any rate what we were introduced to in a ten-minute primer was. A simple skill and combat system. But the signature mechanic is sanity -- whenever you see something creepy enough, supernatural, or blood-and-guts, you lose a bit of sanity. Until the shit hits the fan.
When you're exploring a creepy abandoned house, it is very creepy when most of the things are not monsters to fight, but finding something mysterious. Do you look at it? Do you read it? You'll probably have to pass a sanity test. Maybe you should just avoid looking at things. But then, do you want to face the greater horrors below completely ignorant of what mysteries may lurk?
This was run by Chris F. who did it very well. Next week John, who I know from Corin's and Edith's roleplaying is running another one-off, actually GMing for the first time, and I think he'd do it quite well, so I want to go along if I have any chance.
I very much wanted to take the opportunity to see what it was like. Although it also supports long campaigns quite successfully, I don't think I'd want to take it up often, but it's quite moving to see. Obviously a lot of the creepiness is in the style and adventure design -- in any game you COULD have creepy things happen. But the system is based around it.
The system is apparently quite simple from a mechanics standpoint -- or at any rate what we were introduced to in a ten-minute primer was. A simple skill and combat system. But the signature mechanic is sanity -- whenever you see something creepy enough, supernatural, or blood-and-guts, you lose a bit of sanity. Until the shit hits the fan.
When you're exploring a creepy abandoned house, it is very creepy when most of the things are not monsters to fight, but finding something mysterious. Do you look at it? Do you read it? You'll probably have to pass a sanity test. Maybe you should just avoid looking at things. But then, do you want to face the greater horrors below completely ignorant of what mysteries may lurk?
This was run by Chris F. who did it very well. Next week John, who I know from Corin's and Edith's roleplaying is running another one-off, actually GMing for the first time, and I think he'd do it quite well, so I want to go along if I have any chance.