The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Given this is a Bionicle fansite I don't think it would be too far-fetched to assume a large portion of my audience would be a lot younger and not as familiar with Lovecraft as I am, and that a large portion of the ones that are might not know much more than "Cthulhu is a great big monster with tentacles".

 

Why not take advantage of this? If you go with the more modern times, you can have a set up where people, caught up in the speed of modern times, have been ignoring most of the weird sightings and stuff as hoaxes. If you have characters who are fully ignorant - which is far more interesting in a Lovecraftian setting - then players who are likewise will have a much easier time.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

 

Given this is a Bionicle fansite I don't think it would be too far-fetched to assume a large portion of my audience would be a lot younger and not as familiar with Lovecraft as I am, and that a large portion of the ones that are might not know much more than "Cthulhu is a great big monster with tentacles".

 

Why not take advantage of this? If you go with the more modern times, you can have a set up where people, caught up in the speed of modern times, have been ignoring most of the weird sightings and stuff as hoaxes. If you have characters who are fully ignorant - which is far more interesting in a Lovecraftian setting - then players who are likewise will have a much easier time.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

That premise would be fantastic. We live in a time dominated by things we can measure, processes which science explain clearly (quantum physics aside). When something that we cannot explain stirs, what would that do to the worldviews of those who would never have expected it? A modern setting is also practical in that characters would be able to communicate and transport themselves relatively quickly over reasonably large distances. Speaking as a biracial third culture kid, the different cultural interpretations of the strange going-ons around the world would also be quite interesting to play out.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Eh. I've never been a fan of Lovecraft in modern times. Largely because our technology allows us to utterly own most of the races presented in it.

 

I've checked my sourcebooks on that. Sure, they have nice weapons, but a distinct lack of armored vehicles screws them over. Plus, y'know, an electricty gun that can go through walls isn't that much better then an machine gun that can do the same thing.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Eh. I've never been a fan of Lovecraft in modern times. Largely because our technology allows us to utterly own most of the races presented in it.

 

I've checked my sourcebooks on that. Sure, they have nice weapons, but a distinct lack of armored vehicles screws them over. Plus, y'know, an electricty gun that can go through walls isn't that much better then an machine gun that can do the same thing.

 

I could be wrong here, but in most Lovecraftian things, isn't it generally considered that you don't go face to face with the enemy? If players have to fight the monsters, pit them against proxies such as cultists rather than in direct combat.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Havelock Vetinari]

I could be wrong here, but in most Lovecraftian things, isn't it generally considered that you don't go face to face with the enemy? If players have to fight the monsters, pit them against proxies such as cultists rather than in direct combat.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

 

Used to be you couldn't get your hands on a AK-47 with some money and illegal contacts.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

Meh, just have them go to local gun shows, or purchase online. Plenty of assault-style weapons for everyone!Or make a cult more well-connected that a group of people in someone's basement.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Meh, just have them go to local gun shows, or purchase online. Plenty of assault-style weapons for everyone!Or make a cult more well-connected that a group of people in someone's basement.

 

Some snapped photos and eager wolv-erm, news reporters will take care of that.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Or make a cult more well-connected that a group of people in someone's basement.

 

Exactly.

 

Which does bring up the point that it doesn't matter how sucky a lightning gun is compared to an AK, if the players don't have an AK. I would definitely say that I lived in a well-armed community, and while there's a few semi-autos and military rifles floating around, a fully automatic weapon isn't the easiest thing to get your hands on. And the ammo? Not happening.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

And you know there would be heck to pay if the government started to bring in armed soldiers on the streets over some blurry shakey-cam footage, or an (obviously) doctored photo (I can see the pixels).

[Havelock Vetinari]

So in short, you have make the cult impossibly powerful to compensate for the weakness of what should be the strongest threat in the game and then you have to hamper the players be denying them access to the black-market.

 

Sounds like a great RPG.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[The Lonesome Wanderer]

Or you do the cult like the one in The Following.

 

EDIT: For those that don't know, it basically means that people such as the SWAT and important politicians are in on it, along with a large chunk of the richest people on the planet.

Edited May 28, 2013 by The Lonesome Wanderer

[Havelock Vetinari]

And you know there would be heck to pay if the government started to bring in armed soldiers on the streets over some blurry shakey-cam footage, or an (obviously) doctored photo (I can see the pixels).

 

Except, you know, there are tests for that.

 

Also, drones. It's near impossible to hide anything big these days because everyone is walking around with a camera in their pocket.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

So in short, you have make the cult impossibly powerful to compensate for the weakness of what should be the strongest threat in the game and then you have to hamper the players be denying them access to the black-market.

Sounds like a great RPG.

 

Not to make assumptions, but you head to the black market at least once a week, right? The idea is that you put reasonable people against unreasonable settings, events, and creatures. The average character will not have magical access to a black market. Depending on the exact setting, they may not have a large enough one in their vicinity to get ahold of anything useful.

 

Alternatively, put control of things both legal and illegal like the black market and local police forces under the cult itself. Heck, make the leader of the free world a cultist if you feel like it. Have the government know about the events and try to cover it up so the players have both mundane and transmundane opponents when they dig too far.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Havelock Vetinari]

Yeah. I've lost all interest in a Lovecraft RPG if it takes that turn.

 

Ugh.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Yeah. I've lost all interest in a Lovecraft RPG if it takes that turn.

 

Ugh.

 

Considering none of us are even the GM who proposed the idea, I don't think that will be a problem. But what, exactly, is your problem? Asides from the suggestion that a cult led by powerful creatures from the beginning of time might be able to infiltrate over the span of centuries the highest levels of society? Or the concept that most people don't have access to the local black market? Your stance on this is confusing at best. :|

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

Yeah. I've lost all interest in a Lovecraft RPG if it takes that turn.

 

Ugh.

 

I do not quite understand your aversion.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Because, quite frankly, the world doesn't work like that. Do you know how easy it is to get a black market gun? Let me put it this way: we think most big urban gangs have anti-armor firepower stashed somewhere. Yeah. One trip to the city away.

 

Frankly, I could list more examples, but it would be in bad taste. You've clearly never read Lovecraft*. Lovecraft doesn't work in the modern day. Simple-as. It was written in the 1920's for 1920's tech. Frankly, you'd have to nerf the players so much and make the cult so impossibly powerful that the suspension of disbelief shatters like a glass bull getting hit by a convoy of tanks.

 

*Because Lovecraftian cults don't work that way. At all. Mostly because of the effect the worship of said creatures has on their sanity. I.E they have none of it. Oh, we've seen the occasional intelligent cultists, but they seem to be the exception rather then the rule.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

*Because Lovecraftian cults don't work that way. At all. Mostly because of the effect the worship of said creatures has on their sanity. I.E they have none of it. Oh, we've seen the occasional intelligent cultists, but they seem to be the exception rather then the rule.

 

Isn't most of the Lovecraft you read set in pre-modern times? Did any of their plans or ideas work in the past? Things change and evolve. And not all cultists are deep. Maybe a lot of their influence comes from people who have ties to the cult but don't necessarily make daily blood sacrifices. Some may not even know it happens.

 

Do you know how easy it is to get a black market gun?

 

Not as easy as you obviously think. You say that most large urban gangs have such weapons... but neglect the fact that if they do have that kind of arsenal, they're also keeping tabs on who else might. And making sure it's under control. So unless you want to pick a fight with the gang(s), you're not just going to do it.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Havelock Vetinari]

Whatever. Have your modern RPG. I'm tired of trying to stop this.

 

Just don't expect me to join up.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

Alternatively don't set it in the world as a whole. Have the players be survivors of a plane crash or something that has left them stranded somewhere distinctly...eldritch. Cuts down on how much modern weaponry they'd have (ie, they wouldn't have any) so they'd have to improvise with what they could salvage from the wreck. Put it somewhere like the Mountains of Madness, which stops them from calling for help because its hard to a signal for your phone in the middle of the Arctic. Likely supplies would be low too which means their only options are "go explore the freaky mountain city" or "freeze slowly to death" which explains why they don't just walk away from an obviously scary thing

Edited May 28, 2013 by Lord of Adders Black

[Havelock Vetinari]

That, that would work.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Silvan Haven]

Just popping in here like I did every once and a while.

 

A reality jumping RPG sounds cool and kinda like an idea I've had for a while Just not for an RPG.

 

A Lovecraft RPG would certainly be interesting. Can't say I would join, since I prefer punching eldritch abomination in the face with shaped charge knuckles, but still interesting. It might be fun to have an RPG where there is a more or less realistic take on what would happen if the government/s found out about all that stuff and did something about it.

 

Not exactly your normal Lovecraft type thing but it would be fun/interesting to play.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Silvan Haven

[Havelock Vetinari]

I have, at last count, around ten or eleven sourcebooks for the Cthulhu RPG and one anthology of Lovecraft stories.

 

Most of which are set in the 1920's or 1930's. The sourcebooks vary from the Dark Ages to Rome. I've also got some for the 1800's.

 

Frankly, reading one of those sourcebooks told me more about the 1920's then some history books. So yeah, I can provide advice.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Basilisk

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

Alternatively don't set it in the world as a whole. Have the players be survivors of a plane crash or something that has left them stranded somewhere distinctly...eldritch. Cuts down on how much modern weaponry they'd have (ie, they wouldn't have any) so they'd have to improvise with what they could salvage from the wreck. Put it somewhere like the Mountains of Madness, which stops them from calling for help because its hard to a signal for your phone in the middle of the Arctic. Likely supplies would be low too which means their only options are "go explore the freaky mountain city" or "freeze slowly to death" which explains why they don't just walk away from an obviously scary thing

Like LOST, with Lovecraft! The potential cultural diversity of people on a plane or a Costa Concordia ship is almost limitless.

[The Lonesome Wanderer]

 

Alternatively don't set it in the world as a whole. Have the players be survivors of a plane crash or something that has left them stranded somewhere distinctly...eldritch. Cuts down on how much modern weaponry they'd have (ie, they wouldn't have any) so they'd have to improvise with what they could salvage from the wreck. Put it somewhere like the Mountains of Madness, which stops them from calling for help because its hard to a signal for your phone in the middle of the Arctic. Likely supplies would be low too which means their only options are "go explore the freaky mountain city" or "freeze slowly to death" which explains why they don't just walk away from an obviously scary thing

Like LOST, with Lovecraft! The potential cultural diversity of people on a plane or a Costa Concordia ship is almost limitless.

That actually sounds really cool.

And I for one would like it to be set in a place similar to where they were trapped in At the Mountains of Madness(Only Lovecraft story I have ever read).

[Alex Humva]

The "crashed on an island with eldritch things" reminds me of an RPG I had in the works a while back. Takes place in the blasted ruins of Wichita, an unknown force keeping the world outside at bay while keeping those inside of it... inside. Players would be pitted against each other and the eldritch environment while trying to figure their way out.

[Atton Rand]

Okay, it seems there's been a lot of activity, so maybe I should go over the individual points.

 

Personally, I'm not sure how effective modern weaponry would be against most of Lovecraft's creations. I know for certain it wouldn't do much more than scratch Cthulhu (the only thing that I know of which might be a match for Cthulhu would be an atomic bomb, good luck getting your hands on one of those; and even if you can get one it's still a long shot, plus there's the whole issue of Cthulhu being located in the middle of the ocean and the impact that an atomic blast could have on the surrounding environment leaking radiation into the pacific ocean). The odds may be slightly better with some of the lesser creatures, provided of course you can find them (especially in the cases of Mi-Go and Deep Ones), but even then I'm not fully sure. While theoretically the Deep Ones can be killed with conventional weaponry they mostly live in the depths of the ocean. I can't say if the Mi-Go would be affected by conventional weaponry or not, though I know they do have an unusual biological structure that keeps them from showing up on film; and given that they're an advanced space faring race I wouldn't find it too far-fetched to assume that it may take some powerful weaponry to defeat them. That's not even getting into the Elder-Things (which are both plant and animal) and Shoggoths (which wouldn't be affected by bullets since they don't have a solid form), or the Colour out of Space (which I'm not sure how you'd even begin trying to fight with any kind of man-made weapon).

 

I see that there has also been some talk of setting, something I was still trying to figure out. The obvious answer would be to use Lovecraft's native New England, which would allow us to bring in some of the major cities (Arkham, Innsmouth, etc.), but I figure if I were to do that I might run into the same issue that led me to modernize it (that being the old saying "write what you know"). I have considered the possibility of allowing people to go anywhere in the world. This would allow for some cultural and national diversity which would be interesting. In essence this kind of thing has been done with some mythos writers, who draw on their own nationality as inspiration (Ramsey Campbell, being a British writer, largely set his stories in Europe; heck, I've written a story set in rural Canada).

 

Of course the popular opinion seems to be Antarctica. I haven't actually seen Lost, so I don't have the same point of reference, but it could be interesting to utilize the Antarctic environment. I'm not sure I'm fully confident in the idea of the "airplane survivors", though; maybe just because it implies a limited number of players and I was never good and keeping up with RPGs centered around a small team. Perhaps instead we could have a massive international expedition? This would allow for a variety of players with different skills while still utilizing a largely isolated environment (keep in mind that numerous factors can interfere with any communication with the outside world, which would leave intervals where the characters are on their own). In fact this would be the kind of thing where we could really take advantage of modern technologies that weren't available in Lovecraft's day.

[Canis Lycaon]

Limited players? You know that air planes can carry hundreds of people? Plenty of room for one PC per person and NPCs.

 

LOST basically had everyone crash onto an island with tons of weird stuff on it. (IE: It was a tropical island, and there were polar bears. There was a creature made of black smoke that eats the skin off people.)

[Havelock Vetinari]

Sourcebooks say that bullets are quite effective against most of the nasties actually. Frankly, I think your overestimating those creatures.

 

The Mi-Go were held back by dogs.

 

Dogs.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Basilisk

[Van Hohenheim]

so basically an RPG about giant sea monsters and aliens? I'm not familiar with the Cthulhu mythos

[Atton Rand]

so basically an RPG about giant sea monsters and aliens? I'm not familiar with the Cthulhu mythos

 

Well, in short, the Cthulhu Mythos is based on the philosophy that mankind is a meaningless part of a much greater cosmos. Lovecraft's vision is of an uncaring universe full of horrors so far beyond our range of understanding that attempting to understand them (and in some cases just looking at them) is enough to drive a person to madness (This is largely where the term "Eldritch Abomination" comes from), most if not all of which are capable of easily destroying us.The thing is that these creatures aren't so much evil as they are indifferent. A common analogy is to compare the way these monsters look at us to the way that we'd see bugs on the sidewalk.

 

In other words, yes, there are giant sea monsters and aliens with varying degrees of strangeness (for the record, Lovecraft once wrote a story involving a creature so alien it could only be identified as a "colour" outside the visual spectrum; just try to wrap your mind around that one), but the real source of horror is the realization of humanity's insignificance and our inevitable doom.

 

Also, Basilisk, I didn't want to say this before since I didn't want to start an argument, but I'm mainly going on Lovecraft's writings, so I'm not entirely sure how reliable those sourcebooks are.

 

Edit: Fair point, an average passenger plane can carry a ton of people, but if you don't mind me asking what exactly is a common passenger plane doing over the Antarctic? I've heard of airplanes flying over the North Pole occasionally to get between North America and Europe but I'm not aware of any airlines that go over the South Pole. As I noted before, I think a scientific expedition would be a bit more believable.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Atton Rand

[BenLuke]

Sourcebooks say that bullets are quite effective against most of the nasties actually.

 

Your tabletop sourcebooks aren't the finale say in the matter, Basilisk.

 

Even Lovecraft himself wouldn't be a finale say, since that kind of concrete answer is counter to everything the Mythos stands for. If we want the eldritch nasties in a game to be as powerful as we are compared to ants then it can be so, and if we want a light Cthulhu punching romp (Which by the way I'd also be interested in.) then that works too.

[Havelock Vetinari]

I begin to see the wisdom in certain old maxims.

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

Edit: Fair point, an average passenger plane can carry a ton of people, but if you don't mind me asking what exactly is a common passenger plane doing over the Antarctic? I've heard of airplanes flying over the North Pole occasionally to get between North America and Europe but I'm not aware of any airlines that go over the South Pole. As I noted before, I think a scientific expedition would be a bit more believable.

It doesn't necessarily have to be Antarctica. The climate there would be utterly impossible for an ill-equipped human to survive in (particularly if there was any wind in the winter season).

 

The location could be unstated. We're dealing with extradimensional horrors. Perhaps a plane was flung radically off-course by an extradimensional whirlpool (landing on some desolate place on the Earth). Drop them in a reasonably desolate and creepy place with some wood. They're huddled around a fire, trying to stay warm, when something moves at the edge of the firelight. The mysterious creature(s) ("That was no wolf.") end up pushing them towards the eerie ruined city they didn't see earlier.

[Atton Rand]

 

Edit: Fair point, an average passenger plane can carry a ton of people, but if you don't mind me asking what exactly is a common passenger plane doing over the Antarctic? I've heard of airplanes flying over the North Pole occasionally to get between North America and Europe but I'm not aware of any airlines that go over the South Pole. As I noted before, I think a scientific expedition would be a bit more believable.

It doesn't necessarily have to be Antarctica. The climate there would be utterly impossible for an ill-equipped human to survive in (particularly if there was any wind in the winter season).

 

The location could be unstated. We're dealing with extradimensional horrors. Perhaps a plane was flung radically off-course by an extradimensional whirlpool (landing on some desolate place on the Earth). Drop them in a reasonably desolate and creepy place with some wood. They're huddled around a fire, trying to stay warm, when something moves at the edge of the firelight. The mysterious creature(s) ("That was no wolf.") end up pushing them towards the eerie ruined city they didn't see earlier.

 

Okay fair enough. The only reason I cited Antarctica was because there were some people who expressed an interest in the idea of Return to the Mountains of Madness, which to be fair is an interesting idea but in order for it to work it would have to be believable, hence my alternative of the scientific expedition. There are other environments where that might work.

 

If we want to go with the isolated setting (which, popular demand seems to be pointing towards) we could try the Arctic, which is slightly more habitable but still has the same isolation that would be present in an Antarctic setting, I'm just not sure we could so easily incorporate the ancient ruins.

 

If you really want to go wandering through an ancient city and try something radical we could look at one of the earliest Cthulhu Mythos stories, The Nameless City, which features an unnamed protagonist exploring the ruins of... well... the Nameless City. Considering the nature of the city I'm not sure exactly what we'd do but there might be something.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Hm. Sandstorms would add to the isolation.....

 

As would miles of empty desert and a tainted water supply.

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

The flexible nature of the mythos would allow one to make their own ancient eldritch ruins (alien geometries everywhere).

[Silvan Haven]

Or you could go all the way with the LOST thing and go for a jungle island.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Hm. I can see it now, an illegal dig, perhaps funded or operating under the blessings of an illegal cartel, arrives at the Nameless City. They set up tents, campsites....then the sandstorms come. Massive walls of swirling sand all around the city. Sand that could flay flesh from the bone...

[Atton Rand]

The flexible nature of the mythos would allow one to make their own ancient eldritch ruins (alien geometries everywhere).

 

Okay, that is true, but there is an issue of making it believable. In order for this to work we'd need a good isolated location, somewhere where it would make sense that some ancient ruins could exist without being noticed. I can think of three stories in which Lovecraft had characters exploring ancient ruins:

• The Nameless City: Set in the Arabian desert. In this case, the city was already a well-known legend, the narrator is curious to know the truth.
• The Temple: A German U-boat encounter underwater city, although the actual exploration only happens after the story ends.
• At the Mountains of Madness: Set in Antarctica, written at a time before the continent was fully mapped and thus still very mysterious. There are points where it shows (for instance, we now know there are no mountains that dwarf Everest).

The only environment I can think of in which Ancient Ruins could still go unnoticed would be somewhere at the bottom of the ocean (as in The Temple), but that would require the use of a submarine.