MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

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Keeper Dan
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MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

Post by Keeper Dan » Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:42 am

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In episode 80, we talk about some of those oddball skills you see in published scenarios. We also take a close look at some of our favorite NPCs from published scenarios and campaigns. Plus, listener feedback a listener email and an iTunes review. This episode was recorded on May 24th, 2015.

Apologies for the poor sound quality in some places. The cleaning program I use normally does a much better job of removing hiss without distorting the audio. This one wasn't as successful at getting good audio out of the recordings.


Campus Crier
Part 3 of Paul Fricker's video guide series on the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart rules, which covers Sanity rules, has been released.

Check out Part I on Character Creation, Part II on Game System and Part III on Sanity Rules

Dan found the Cthulhu connection with Paizo!

Pathfinder bestiaries include lots of Lovecraft baddies, including:
Bhole
Colour Out of Space
Elder Thing
Flying Polyp
Great Old One
Great Old One, Bokrug
Great Old One, Cthulhu
Great Old One, Hastur
Mi-go
Nightgaunt
Spawn of Yog-Sothoth
Star-spawn of Cthulhu
The Worm that Walks

More links:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yop
http://g33kingout.com/the-top-10-new-monsters-from-pathfinder-bestiary-4/
http://www.tor.com/2013/11/15/pathfinders-bestiary-4-rpg-book-review/


Feedback!
From iTunes:
Title: High Art.
Reviewer name: The Dripping Tentacle.
Rating: 5 star
Comment:
You talk over each other too much…. Stop it. Great show. Funny all day long. You guys are the Walter White of podcasting… always cooking up the good $%^&. Go Pods.
Email:
Subject: Bloody Falls From: Crash Monarch
Dear MU Podcast,
In a recent podcast, you mentioned the ‘bloody falls’ in Antarctica. During a recent ‘Beyond the Mountains of Madness’ campaign that I was running, one of my players sent me the link to the story about ‘the falls’. I immediately decided to incorporate the falls into our game. My idea was that a mythos creature was expelling a blood-like excrement, which was resulting the suspicious looking liquid. The creature I was thinking of is one that you guys talked about in one of your podcasts.

As the player characters were flying near the coast, I had them spot a strange land formation in the distance. As they flew over, they saw the strange falls. For handouts, I used pictures of the falls that I found on the internet.

Later, they sent a ground team, traveling on skis and dogsleds, to examine the falls. They found a reddish brown pool of steaming liquid that ran over the ice shelf, forming the falls. Around the pool they found many seal and penguin corpses, all drained of blood.

Suddenly one of the dogs was grabbed and lifted off the ground by an invisible force. Some unseen thing snapped the dog’s spine like a twig and began feeding on it. That’s when the Star Vampire came into view before them. I used the max stats for the creature, figuring it had been here for sometime, feeding and growing.

Surprisingly, the party survived and defeated the creature, thanks to a stick of dynamite and a series of very good rolls. I found a way to weave star vampires into the main elder thing storyline. Later, I arranged for the party’s ship to be overrun by a score of star vampires, which made for an exciting and deadly climax to our 4 year plus campaign.

In closing, I want to sincerely thank each of you for the amazing podcast. I have listened to every episode and will continue to do so. I appreciate all the time and work you guys put in. Your ideas ended up influencing our game and making it better.

GO PODS!!!!!
Sincerely,
Crash Monarch

Cryptocurium Spotlight
There are still Necronomicon and Mi-Go magnets left!
Also, the July Parcel of Terror has been revealed!

Topic 1
This week we talk about oddball skills, like "Bake great Cookies 95%" (from the mother of Paul Lemond in Fungi from Yuggoth) and "Charm the Pants off of Guests" (from "The Reeling Midnight" in New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley).

You can find a coupleof threads about this on YSDC, including comments from dissenters.

Murf:
(All from Masks of Nyarlathotep)
Armed Assault - Pg. 83
Drink Self to Sleep - Pg. 72
How Things Were at Cambridge - Pg. 65
Doctrine and Life - Pg. 130
Act Before Thinking - Pg. 131
See Past as Though Still Present - Pg. 141
Incite Frenzy - Pg. 148
Hard Rock Mining Lore - Pg. 169
Do What Grogan Wants - Pg. 169
Nothing a Human Can Understand - Pg. 177
Follow Orders - Pg. 183
Command Apes - Pg. 207
Yowl - Pg. 212 (For A Cat)
Past And Future Glories Of The Han - Pg. 215

Dan:
(From Atomic Age)
Follow Orders
Cackle Crazily
Mumble and Complain
Bluster Effectively
Glare at Capitalist Pigs
Act Superior
Plant Evidence
Seduction
Camouflage Self

6e Core Book
Deal With Publishers, Love Old Books, Ride Unusual Mount (Randolph Carter)
Blackmail, Lack Mercy, Torture (Joseph Curwen)
Avoid Responsibility, Turn Away From Reality (Edward Derby)
Kidnap, Organize Cult (Keziah Mason)

Not to mention (in the weapons section):
Hysterically Claw & Chew (The Last De La Poer)


Topic 2
Our Favorite Published NPCs

Murf:
Mickey Mahoney - The Scoop newspaper editor (Masks pg. 49-50)

Jon:
Denizens of the Orne Library (Miskatonic University book)

Chad:
Neil Hazlitt, curiosity shop owner (Kingsport, pg. 30); Aaron Hart, hysterical historian (pg. 22)

Dan:
Peter Crosswell, broken young man from Thing at the Threshold.
And here's a link to an online Mahjong fortune telling page. It's written in Javascript, so you know it has to be magical!
Keeper Dan of the Miskatonic University Podcast

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Re: MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

Post by fox01313 » Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:13 pm

Possible oddity or just typo in the show notes:
"Pathfinder bestiaries include lots of Lovecraft baddies, including:
Bhole"

Also another connection to Cthulhu with Pathfinder, Ryan who has worked with them & friends with the Mythos. Lots more here on the Unspeakable Oath.
http://theunspeakableoath.com/home/2014 ... ror-games/

Remember hitting some of the odd skills in some of the Blood Brothers books so there's a small warning there. While the unique skills are good for an NPC to just sum up some characteristic, for pregenerated characters, you keepers might want to just use the name & character description/history to put to a profession if you're using them as a pregenerated player character. Then either redo the skills or let the player get a name & profession, then put the skills how they think they fit.

While Alice Cooper's School's Out would be good, here are a few alternatives:
Alice Cooper - Ballad of Dwight Fry (ps the live show does a great job of painting Alice as the bad guy as intended)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoApny_rmnI

or

King Diamond - Black Hills Sanitarium (which is a great name for some medical building)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EM_quoSqOo

also as much as I love Alice Cooper, have to give some attention to 45 Grave who did a cover of School's Out (hooked since hearing her band on Return of the Living Dead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjq1Wj ... 7041D2531C
"That's funny, usually the blood gets off on the second floor." -Mr. Burns in The Shinning episode (Treehouse of horror V)

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Re: MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

Post by viscounteric » Wed Jun 03, 2015 3:46 pm

Fantastic episode as always.

The oddball skills topic evolved into a great discussion on role-playing NPCs. There are plenty of scenarios with women, children, or high-pitched men NPCs with the "Scream Loudly 75%" skill, just to cement what their role was.

Most important oddball skill for my group? Find Drinkable Liquor

When my investigators visited Mrs. Lemond, they specifically asked how good the cookies were. I impaled the roll. I believe she also had knitting, so each Investigators went back to New York City with a new cardigan. Then I remembered a certain Mr Rogers was in the scenario. Hilarity ensued.
The log of the CoC games http://gamingwiththegnomies.blogspot.com/p/call-of.html... and some gnomes.

Paul Fricker
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Re: MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

Post by Paul Fricker » Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:45 pm

Thanks for mentioning the videos guys - much appreciated. I'm learning as I go!
One of the Good Friends of Jackson Elias (a Call of Cthulhu podcast)

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Re: MUP 080 - NPC Favorites and Roll to Ramble Aimlessly

Post by EddyPo » Thu Jun 04, 2015 6:15 pm

Blood Brothers I and II both have some great oddball skills. Some of my favorites from various characters:

Play Dijeridu 35% (how could you tell if he fails?)
Hang Head Out Car Window 95% (this character happens to be a dog.)
Tag Graffiti everywhere 55% (that leaves 45% of everything untagged. Better get busy.)
Sex 50% (what happens here with a crit fail?)
Mime 80% (I'd prefer the fail over the success.)

I really love the oddball skills. If anything it makes preparing a scenario more fun for the Keeper.

Great topic and great show guys!
Not a hack!

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