Kingbeast's Lair

[Author’s Note: This is the log for the 1st session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play. After making characters we started in on the first session. The narrator is shown in italics.]

After a near fatal accident brilliant scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla decides it is time to do more with his incredible resources. Gathering the best and brightest Nikola forms a secret organization to fight corruption and evil head-on. He names this group of heroes Tesla’s Power Core.

Fade To Black

The scene open in a small Irish pub located in Greenwich Village named O’Mally’s. The PC sit at a large window table waiting for one of Johnny Kelly’s friends, Jim Black, to arrive. Jim called and told Johnny that he had something important to discuss…something that he did want to discuss over an open telephone line. As Jim crosses the street with a smile and a wave a black sedan slows behind him. In a hail of gunfire he is cut down. The PC race to Jim’s aid only to discover that his wounds are fatal. Jim mutters his last two words to Johnny, “Starkweather…Nazis…” In his pockets the PC find a business card for Valerie Braveheart from the New York Times. Her title is listed as “Ace Reporter”.

At this point Johnny Kelly relates what he knows about Starkweather Industries (SI). SI is a large medical company centered in upstate New York. They are known for developing some new experimental drugs using flora and fauna from the Amazon rainforest.

With that the PC head to the New York Times. They are met by a cub reporter who tells them that Ms. Braveheart is current out on assignment. After Quigley impresses on the young reporter the urgency of their request he stutters that he thinks Ms. Braveheart is, “doing a…an…espionage piece on some local chemical…or maybe drug…company.”

Factory Tour

After a short drive the PC arrive at the Starkweather factory. Outside the PC find a truck and two cars. Neither car is the black sedan that ran down Jim Black. The truck is being loaded by several tough looking thugs. One of the thugs reminds Johnny of the driver of the black sedan. At this point Johnny decides to rig up a makeshift mine that he plans to attach to the wheel of the truck. Liam distracts the workers briefly giving Johnny Kelly a chance to attach the device.

The PC next approach the factory office. After entering the office the PC observe what could only be Ms. Braveheart tied up in a chair. A huge beast of a man with a large “X” scar on his cheek is interrogating the New York Times ace reporter. Several armed men watch in amusement. The PC jump into action! Liam tells the men to give up. Quigley opens fire when the men start to draw their weapons. Johnny uses his slingshot and one of his latest Super Expanding Foam rounds to bind them up. As the thugs attempt to escape Quigley continues to gun them down in a blaze of lead! Quigley then grabs Ms. Braveheart and pulls her back into the office. In the chaotic exchange of gunfire a round hits a tank of chemicals marked with skull-and-crossbones symbols. Acting quickly Johnny seals the leak using one of his Super Expanding Foam rounds. As the hulking man leaves through the loading doc doors on the far side of the warehouse he barks at Liam in German, “You may have stopped us now ‘Hero’ but our master plan is already set in motion!”

As soon as the PC are sure that Ms. Braveheart is not hurt they rush outside. In one of the cars the huge man is racing away with 3 of his cohorts. The back wheel of the truck is blown off by the cleverly rigged mine Johnny placed earlier. The PC jump into their car in hot pursuit. After a harrowing chase where it looks like the car will escape Liam manages to close the distance allowing Quigley to take out the rear axel of the car using his massive Elephant Gun. Upon losing control the car skids over a guard rail and erupts into a ball of fire!

Now it is up to the able members of Tesla’s Power Core to get to the bottom of this dastardly master plan before it can reach its deadly conclusion…

-== What is it? ==-

Trail Of Cthulhu (TOC) is a horror RPG based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and the investigation based Gumshoe rules system from Robin Laws. The book focuses on the 1930’s but this can easily be adjusted by the GM. It was written by Kenneth Hite and published by Pelgrane Press in 2007. With a pedigree of Robin Laws and Kenneth Hite my expectation for TOC are very high. I consider these two gentlemen to be some of the best RPG authors in the business. 😉

TOC has a color cover and a three color interior. The interior text is black and white but there is dark green shading to add atmosphere. The hardcover version of TOC is 8.5” x 11” and is 248 pages in length. I am reviewing a print copy that I bought from Pelgrane Press. I ran six sessions of TOC using the Purist rule set as part of my Armitage Files campaign. (Watch this very blog for a review of the Armitage Files.)

-== What I Like ==-

TOC uses the Gumshoe system previously presented in Esoterrorists but skins it for Cthulhu. The primary enhancements are the addition of rules for Stability/Sanity loss, spell-casting, and tomes. In these areas the product does a pretty good job. My group had little issue with the Stability rolls and seemed to take to them quickly even though as a GM I had some minor issues with them (see below). I do not plan on discussing the Gumshoe system in detail. If you want to read more about it you can check out my Esoterrorist review here. 🙂

The TOC rules cover two styles of play. There is a Purist mode and a Pulp mode. Purist mode is straight horror similar to that found in the Call Of Cthulhu RPG. Pulp mode is two guns blazing against deep ones. 🙂 For my campaign I used the straight Purist mode.

The rules presented in TOC are very fast. I think pushing role-playing over gameplay works well for the horror genre. You don’t get caught focusing on strange rules you move along quickly. The game enforces this aspect of play really well with the Scene card mechanic. After all of the major clues are uncovered the GM holds up a card with the word “Scene” written on it. This lets the players know that they have all of the critical information related to the investigation. There could be details gained by further research but the major important clues are out. The Scene card worked great because it never seemed to distract from the role-playing. In fact I plan to steal the idea for other campaigns that I may run.

The investigative engine present in Gumshoe is a perfect fit for the Lovecraft horror genre. Often the research about a particular nasty is more important than your shotgun. The system naturally supports the style of gameplay that you want to evoke at the table.

I really liked the way the Drive statistic is used to provide character motivation. When creating their characters players pick a motivation, or Drive, for their PC. For example, Curiosity. If they go against their drive they can incur a Stability loss. The mechanic worked well and the players enjoyed the interaction that Drive had on our gameplay.

I really like the artwork and layout in TOC. Even though there is dark green shading behind the text it is not distracting. The artwork can be dark but it really evokes the setting. Jerome Huguenin also knocked it out of the park with a fantastic cover.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

One of my players pointed out that there are several “influencing people” skills without clear boundaries. I agree. I made some subtle changes in my campaign that really helped. I removed Flattery and rolled it into Reassurance. I removed Interrogation and rolled it into Intimidation. I flat out pulled Oral History. Those changes worked pretty well for us. It cut down on complaints and confusion quite a bit. 😉

Several of the players did not like the fact that in TOC Purist rules investigators do not earn experience. I came up with something that is not as open as the Pulp play style but is similar. Here is what I did.

• For each session that a player attends his PC gets 1 ep.
• This ep can be spent to get +1 on a General Ability.
• 5 ep can be traded in to get +1 on a Investigative Ability.
• The rules say that points can be redistributed during the course of a campaign.  I allowed this initially.  After the 5th session I did not allow point shifts.
• Per the rules ep cannot be used to increase Credit Rating, Cthulhu Mythos, or Sanity.
• Stability or Health can generally not be raised unless approved by the Keeper.

The way General Ability pools work in the Gumshoe system was something that my group could not accept. Lets say a PC has 9 points in Firearms. A tough bad guy might need a 4 to hit on 1d6. That means I can spend 3 and automatically hit. So for the first 3 rounds of combat I will hit every time. Once my pool is gone the PC all of a sudden becomes a lousy shot. It just does not make sense. This was by far our biggest issue with TOC.

The chances for a PC to lose Sanity are very hard to achieve.  Every PC in my game had 8 to 10 Stability.  You don’t lose Sanity unless Stability is knocked below 0 and it is a Mythos attack.  Getting attacked by a horrible beast only loses you 5 Stability max.  Not sure the math plays out unless the GM whittles away at the Stability before that last encounter quite a bit.  I started trying this but I am still not comfortable with it.

The way Investigative Abilities work when involved with the persuasion related effects is not wonderful. If I have Assess Honesty I cannot be fooled unless the other person is an actor or trained then it does not work at all. If two Investigative Abilities play against each other there is literally not a mechanic for resolving the situation. It the call of the GM. I think rules are needed for this situation.

-== Summary ==-

I found this TOC review particularly hard to write. The reason is because I am a huge fan of Ken Hite and Robin Laws. I consider them both master RPG designers . At DunDraCon this year Ken mentioned that he and Robin have learned a lot about making the Gumshoe system easier for folks to “grok”. After every Gumshoe release the system clarifies. Me and my players could use some of that clarification. We actually switched from TOC to Call Of Cthulhu after 6 sessions. This is a product with some standout concepts that is brought down by a few severe problems.

You can get copies of TOC at Noble Knight Games at this URL for $25. Amazon has copies for $39.99 at this URL. You can get the PDF from DriveThruRPG at this URL for $24.99.

I give it 6 out of 10 paws.

In 2012 Atlas Games came out with a list of 31 RPG related questions that they wanted people to answer. I will tackle them in small bite sized morsels to make them a bit easier to swallow. Here are the next set of questions.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #11: Have you ever played a character that was morally gray, or actually evil? Why or why not? If yes, did you enjoy it?

I’m primarily a GM so I often play morally gray or downright evil characters. Some of these characters I have been played over extended periods (i.e. recurring villains). At times I have played characters that are very twisted. A few years ago I ran a campaign set in Victorian times that had Cthulhu overtones. In one particularly memorable session I used a fantastic published adventure called Sacraments Of Evil. The villain was a God fearing man who twisted Catholicism into something that was quite insane. The final scene was terribly tough to play but carried so much impact that the players sat stunned for a few seconds. Was this villain “fun” to play…yeah, as I GM I relish giving my players reason to pause…but I don’t think that says anything about me as a good Catholic person. 😉

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #12: Do prefer collaborative or competitive games? What do you think that says about you?

I far prefer collaborative games. I really like it when everyone is having fun. On rare times when playing competitive games people who lose can be put off by the situation. Why meet with friends then have something happen like this? Boo hiss. I’m also a big lover of teamwork. Cooperative games really enforce teamwork. This is another reason why I love RPG so much. The GM may oppose the players but the goal of an RPG is to have fun telling a story as a group.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #13: Who’s the best GM/storyteller/party leader you’ve ever had? What made him/her so great?

This one is really hard…I have played with a lot of really wonderful GMs over the years. One of my favorite GMs is Derek Hiemforth. Derek does a lot of things right as a GM. He makes sessions build in excitement then hammers home a great ending. Derek has a nice way of laying out mysteries. He lets out clues at just the right rate and mixes in encounters to keep everyone on their toes. Derek does a great job playing NPC. Often I end up laughing along with the other players at an NPC.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #14: What kinds of adventures do you enjoy most? Dungeon crawls, mysteries, freeform roleplaying, or something else? What do you think that says about you?

I really love high-adventure gaming sessions. When I can swing from the chandeliers, jump from moving cars, and ride on the back of dangerous monsters I am a happy camper. Sometimes if my dice are against me this can be a dangerous proposition but that is part of the fun. I think loving high-adventure sessions says that I need to escape from my mundane world every so often. It also says that I have wild impulses that I like to play out in a safe environment. I’m a very tense person…this is my release.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #15: People often talk about the divide between what happens “in game” and “in real life.” Do you maintain that divide in your own play, or do you tend to take what happens to your character personally? Why?

I definitely do not take things that happen to my character personally. So often things happen in games that are really bad or unintentional. At times the mood of a session can affect me afterwards but this is not an example of “what happened in the game affecting my real life” it is “what happened in real life affecting my real life”. 😉

GAME ON! 😀