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In episode 52 Chad, Jon and Dan talk about the pros and cons of pre-generated characters and how they can be integrated into Call of Cthulhu stories in a way that players will have buy-in, and then we cover the bottomless topic of house rules. Where we like them, dislike them, or didn’t even know we were using them.

Campus Crier

• Dan was away on a trip when the Crier was recorded on the 23rd, so it features Chad, Jon and Murf.
• Video auditions are currently being accepted for a Lovecraftian short film project based on stories from the Lovecraft eZine!
• Just in time for the MUP 2-year anniversary, we’re announcing the upcoming release of Cephalaphobia! Check out articles on bribery, new monsters, an Invictus era side adventure, a transatlantic steamship scenario, with game material by Brian Sammons and reprinted fiction by Shane Ivey — it’s a pretty amazing yearbook. Keeper Murph and Scriven deserve huge thanks for putting this together.
• Cthulhu Apocalypse: Slaves of the Mother from Pelgrane Press has been released. This is the final chapter of Graham Walmsley’s Cthulhu Apocalypse campaign for Trail of Cthulhu. — written by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.
• Graphic novel Kickstarter: Prospero’s Price; A Lovecraft and Shakespeare Tale — funded on the day this show dropped! (Sunday, 3-23-14)
• Lovecraft for kids (sort of) Kickstarter: The Littlest Lovecraft: The Dunwich Horror, a children’s book-style adaptation of the Lovecraft story. They’re 3 times past their funding goal, with one week still left.
• Chad talks about getting to attend a special brunch at the Bourbon Street cafe in Queens to celebrate the successful funding of the Tales of the Crescent City book. He met up with Oscar Rios, Dan Harms and none other than Jason McKittrick from Cryptocurium. He also connected with Will from the New Orleans Mythos cadre, who had a hand in the scenario in the Kickstarter package. 
• GAMA Trade Show 2014: Twilight Creations Display ‘Cthulhu!!!’

From Twilight Creations: The idyllic seaside town of Kingsport has always been a bit sleepy but tonight’s dreams may just become tomorrow’s nightmares. The stars are finally right, and the ruthless Cult of Hastur is making a bid to summon an avatar of its dark god! All that stands in the way… is one small group of investigators, the only people smart enough to figure out what’s happening and dumb enough to think they can stop it.

 

Card Catalog

Tabletop Audio is a site that provides 10 minute tracks of ambiance audio for a wide range of genre gaming. You can even loop them if your scene in that environment lasts a while. Jacek linked to this from G+. Thank you very much for sharing this resource!

History Lecture

This week, Dr Gerard is back with an MU History Department Lecture on: Saint Patrick, Keymaster of Hell

Cryptocurium Spotlight

There is a new story-accurate version of The Horror in Clay to replace the discontinued version!

Side Topic

We discuss the best use of pre-gen characters for specific scenarios or for general use. Jon mentions The Big Hoodoo, a scenario for Trail of Cthulhu where you play famous science fiction authors. The Nerdbound podcast has a 2-part AP of Big Hoodoo run by the author, Bill White. Jon remembers it as being RPPR, but I couldn’t find any reference to this scenario on the site. Nerdbound Actual Play Part 1 Nerdbound Actual Play Part 2 It is available in the Trail of Cthulhu book Out of Time. It is also available solo in PDF.

Main Topic

Jacek on G+ asked whether anyone had discovered new rules in CoC they they didn’t know about after playing for years, or using a house rule that they thought was in the book. Here is a thread on YSDC where the topic has also been discussed. We mention the Keeper’s Toolkit, which we went over in episode 13. Dan mentions his tome reading formula. Here it is:

Each book has a number of weeks to read listed with it. It’s not uncommon to have a tome listed as taking from 6 months to a year or more to read and make use of. This formula redefines what a week is, using the skill in the language and the condition of the book. Skill level in the language the book is written it- 1-10% 50 hours 11-20% 40 hours 21-35% 30 hours 36-50% 20 hours 51-65% 15 hours 66-70% 10 hours 71-80% 9 hours 81-90% 8 hours 91-95% 6 hours 95-99% 4 hours The following book condition modifiers can lower the language roll, which increases the reading time. Good 0% modifier All pages are intact, and text is clearly visible. Moderate -20% modifier Some minor amount of page or text damage. Ex- Burned (1/3 page damage) Poor -60% modifier A good deal of text is illegible due to page damage or text distortion. Professional restoration can move to Moderate level. Ex- Smudged/water damage Ex- Burned (1/2 page damage) Destroyed -90% modifier Book will need extensive restoration before more than 1d8 words per page can be read. Ex- Worm/rodent/insect damage Ex- Burned (3/4 or more page damage) Ex- Pages missing If each “week” came to 20 hours using this formula (skill of 40%), then: a 36 week book = 720 hours, or 60 continuous days of 12 hour reading. This is assuming the book is in good condition. That took a book from over 8 months to read to 2 months. It’s still a time commitment, but one more manageable within the construct of a campaign.

Discuss on our Campus Forums here.]]>