DwD Studios
Cthulhu and Pulp
Thu, 07/24/2014 - 12:44pm | 
Piperdog
I have been mulling over using these rules for pulp and Cthulhu style horror as well. I was working with some sanity rules to add on, but am a little stumped.
You can add Sanity Points, using Wil/2. But how to emulate the Call of Cthulhu "sanity spiral". The loss of sanity makes future rolls harder. The more sanity lost, the easier it is to fail a sanity check and continue faster and faster downward into madness.
Just losing Sanity Points until you reach zero and then go insane doesn't emulate this at all. Maybe create benchmarks? Maybe at half sanity then invoke a penalty on future resistance checks for Sanity, just to make it simpler. I don't know. Any suggestions?
Call of Cthulhu is a fun game, and any "Supernatural Hunter" type of campaign, and the Barebones/Covert Ops engine works exceedingly well in all other respects.
| 
Tags: 
Well, I think you could have operatives gain various phobias or such as they fail various Willpower tests. Maybe have a Critical Failures tied to more severe or permanent insanities. As they test (and fail, over time) they start to get weird, unstable and either retire, make a critical mistake, or the like. Rather than have a numerical San pool, they begin developing a narrative psych profile.
The CoC madness spiral is great, but I think a little played out. Classic CoC - as written, and with the San rules, isn't really a campaign game in the traditional sense. Part of the fun is watching your PC go bonkers ... and it doesn't always translate well to other genres.
Monster Hunters Int'l or Supernatural might provide different monster hunting paradigms with various consequences that are unpleasant but not madness spiral.
Nice ideas, thanks! I will definitely mull that over.
I guess I wasn't clear in my original post though that I don't want to add insanity to Covert Ops...I actually want to play traditional CoC but with Covert Ops rules. I really enjoy the CoC spiral into madness...but I really think the rules engine for Barebones/Covert Ops would make for a nice rules light version of CoC. I also think the rules engine would work well for pulp adventure, like Indiana Jones stuff.
Cool! Glad if any of it's of use.
AH! Ok, I did miss that. My bad - well, yea, I think it would as well. It might be - out of the box - a little more suited to Delta Green.
This does give me an idea for a Bone called "Backbone". When a character encounters a psychologically damaging event, they can spend a backbone to preserve their sanity, otherwise roll for an effect. Insanity is not so much a final destination as much as an accumulation of effects. After a while, it becomes apparent that they can no longer function because of the accumulated effects.
Individual effects could include:
twitch (Eye, neck, elbow, shoulder, head, finger)
spontaneous laugh
quick temper
talking to yourself
twirling hair
comfort rocking
spastic hand gestures
squirrelly eyes
bug eyes
hearing voices
hallucinations
paranoia (alien, conspiracy, demon, or other)
violent rages
fantasy world
revenge obsession
friend fanaticism
stalking
lurking
indecision
catatonia (intermittent, prolonged intermittent, then permanent)
OCD (touch, wash hands, count dots, shake hands, check 3 times, or other)
cutting yourself
howling
storytelling
rhyming
fidgeting
banging head (On wall or with hand)
begging
gaping mouth
drooling
sudden movements
yelling in reply
constantly postulating possibilities
religious fanaticism
uncleanness
...and other effects.
That's nice! That list could be made into a random table too ...
That's the intent. :)
This Decahedron article has nearly written itself :)
I like the idea that starting Sanity is Wil/2. Perhaps after losing Sanity Points to seeing or doing something terrible the only way to get them back would be to spend Development Points, say to represent time in therapy or taking a month off to go out to their fishing cabin and drinking. Basically investing time, energy and resources in coping and processing the horror of the Cthulhu Mythos?
The other thought I had would be to make a player take a mental defect from the list above when they critically fail a Sanity check by rolling doubles. Whatever they saw or experienced just hit them particularly hard and now they have a nervous twitch or tic that makes people look at them differently.
What do you folks think?
Well, the thing is that, if I recall correctly, they already have the horror supplement written and being play-tested. They no doubt already have a working insanity mechanic.
Though, that will not stop me from writing the article, if you all don't mind. (I'm inspired. Unless Piperdog is already planning to do it.) I'd call it a collaborative article of Piperdog, BrianEye, Connallmac and me.
I'm happy to contribute!
What do you all think of using WIL check penalties vs. madness of -5 for each negative effect acquired? (Instead of sanity points.) Each fail acquires a negative effect and the penalty. Would a critical fail mean instant madness or simply a greater penalty and roll twice on the effects table?
[Hey, thanks for removing the captia on edits, Mark!]
Bumping since this got lost under all the ads.
Much as I would love to take credit, it was not me. I had to have my son explain what the word captia meant.
Mark M.
Luddite at Large
ROFL!
One horror RPG around that is relatively easy to convert to Covert Ops is Crypt World, (Pacesetter system). It has similar-ish stats and the generated percentages turn out more or less the same. In my experience the Percentage chances are lower in Covert Ops and character progression is longer, weapons are more detailed but nothing than can't be easily overcome.
Anyway I've found that an easier fantasy step than BRP for my campaign.