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In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:29 pm
by MrEben
I have only been playing CoC for a couple months (and only playing tabletop RPG's since a couple of months before that), and I have become obsessed. Recently, I decided to run a game with some friends with little to no RPG experience. All-in-all, I think it went pretty well, but near the end one of my players threw me a curveball that almost derailed me.

I was running "Malice Everlasting" from New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, which has a great climactic scene where the investigators confront a manifestation of Y'golonac on a deserted pier in Kingsport. When I played this as an investigator, we did not attempt to kill Y'golonac, but just kept him busy while we completed our objective. In the game I was running, one of my investigators decided to get into her car and drive down the pier and run Y'golonac over.

At this point the adventure ground to a halt for a few minutes as I tried to find a spot rule in the core rulebook for using a car in combat. In the end I winged it, and ruled that it would take a couple of rounds to get to the car and get it moving, hoping to buy some time. I still didn't know how I was going to determine damage, but I asked the player to give me a "drive auto" roll, and she impaled with a 1% against 75. I feel like I lucked out with the impale, as I didn't have to come up with a formula for damage, I decided to reduce Y'golonac to 5hp, and make them finish him off in melee.

If she didn't impale, I don't know how I would have handled it.

What do you guys think?

As a side note, without this podcast (and support from my own GM), I don't think I would have been able to run this game. Thanks you guys for a great resource.

-Eben

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:11 pm
by Howard
I'm new to CoC, but that sounds like my kind of game. Cars ARE weapons. Cheers!

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:35 am
by Thomas R. Knutsson
I hold the opinion that the GOOs can't be killed off permanentely, so if they play some more scenarios with you, you can have a Y'golonac's Revenge scenario in the future. Preferably somewhere far away from functioning cars. ;)

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:55 am
by MrEben
I totally agree, as far as I am concerned it was a manifestation of Y'golonac on this plane only. I like the idea of of the investigators now being marked for revenge by Y'golonac, or maybe some of his cultists.

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:23 am
by Keeper Dan
Absolutely. Revenge is a dish best served bleeding with a side of slow, gleeful torture.

I love that she rolled a 1 for the attack. That's the kind of epic that you love to see in any RPG. Congratulations, and welcome to Call of Cthulhu!
Just as an aside, another option would have been to have the impact knock Y'golly off the pier and into the drink. Just be sure to add plenty of description of how bad the impact messed him up so the player doesn't feel cheated.

In your case, I think that the avatar idea is best. Sometime down the line, have a cultist actually manifest the god in front of them to show that the body is just temporary. Think the Agents in The Matrix. :twisted:

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:54 am
by Dr. Gerard
If I remember right, Old Smileyhands was an avatar in that scenario anyway.

First, no more bringing the game to a screeching halt. Resist opening the book. At a moment of high drama, just come up with something dramatic. It sounds to me like she was making a sacrifice move. If so, just honor that choice. Two rounds to make it happen sounds right to me. Increases tension, and lets others have some influence on the story.

Off the top of my head, I would say a normal car crash would do 1d10 to 1d20 damage to a driver, depending on situational severity. Maybe double that for pedestrians, who sometimes dodge and get lucky.

When someone rolls an 01, I believe you really have to honor that. For a horror interpretation, 1d20 damage to the driver, and halve the hit points of the monster, plus it dramatically gets pushed into the sea, never to be found again. Describe the mouthy hands screaming and slaping against the windshield, and the whirlpool of blood in the harbor. The 1d20 damage to the driver means probably a 40-50 percent chance for death, and that fits a good sacrificial move. There might also be chances for first aid, which makes for more drama.

Adjust damage based on play style, rinse and repeat.

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 7:06 am
by Howard
Didn't the character in H.P.'s "Call of Cthulhu" hit Cthulhu with a boat?

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:08 am
by Dr. Gerard
Exactly. Your player reenacted a perfectly Lovecraftian solution. Not to be discouraged at all.

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:09 am
by Keeper Dan
Indeed. Vehicular combat is a valid tactic when dealing the the Mythos. I've hit a Dark Young with a cargo truck before in my career. They may shrug off guns, but they have a tougher time with the mass of a speeding car.

Re: In my first game they decided to hit a GOO with a car.

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:47 pm
by MrEben
Keeper Dan wrote:Absolutely. Revenge is a dish best served bleeding with a side of slow, gleeful torture.

I love that she rolled a 1 for the attack. That's the kind of epic that you love to see in any RPG. Congratulations, and welcome to Call of Cthulhu!
Just as an aside, another option would have been to have the impact knock Y'golly off the pier and into the drink. Just be sure to add plenty of description of how bad the impact messed him up so the player doesn't feel cheated.

In your case, I think that the avatar idea is best. Sometime down the line, have a cultist actually manifest the god in front of them to show that the body is just temporary. Think the Agents in The Matrix. :twisted:
Yeah, this is what happened in our scenario. The SAN loss was high for one of the players, and she became a real danger to the party with her temporary insanity (violent paranoia), forcing the others to disarm her while they were dealing with Y'golonac.

Dr. Gerard, I do need to have a bit more confidence in my rulings. I will do my best to leave the book closed. I guess the players liked it, they just agreed to make it a monthly campaign! :cthulhudance: