Miskatonic University Campus

So do you agree with this chap from Yog who is going to blend 6E and 7E or are you doing it another way?

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/articles.htm ... th-edition

I agree with Paul in the sense that I support his approach, as I support the approaches of other keepers as well. This probably goes without saying, but I agree with Paul's choice to cherry pick his favorite bits at first and integrate rules as he becomes comfortable with them. I agree with having options. I plan to live by and respect whatever rules each Keeper chooses for themselves, and I'm expecting that to be reciprocal.

But I'm sure the spirit of the question here is -- what approach will I take?

I plan to jump in and give the full 7E rules my best effort. There are rules that I am very enthusiastic about, like Push, Penalty Dice, Chases and Improvisational Mythos Magic. There are rules I'm skeptical about, like Connections. Then there are rules like the opposing dice and the tiered results of Extreme-Good-Normal successes that will take some effort for me to become fluid with. It's worth noting that most of those are options anyway, though I think the tiered results are built into the engine and harder to separate, since there's no Resistance Table anymore.

But I have found in all role playing games that it's strangely impossible to predict how a mechanic will affect the game merely by seeing it on paper. It must be played.

So I plan to give everything a sincere try right out of the gate, because I'm curious. I'm particularly curious about rules that I'm unsure about.

After some time, I suspect I'll settle into a version that works for me, and I will probably swap some of the options around depending on the group and the needs of the specific scenario. That has always been true of Call of Cthulhu for me. Most every Keeper I know uses some house rule or other when running 6E or earlier versions. A confession: I have always tended to avoid using the Resistance Table. I have used home-brew variations of Grapple and Automatic rules. I have foregone DEX order for initiative in favor of contextual order or just going clockwise around the table. I know Keepers who still use rules from earlier additions, like caps on starting skill levels. Hybrids and house rules in CoC seem to be the rule, not an exception.

Flexibility has always been a part of the culture of this game, and I hope to see that continue.

I reckon we'll switch. We have switched to World War Cthulhu anyway so I've been adding rules such as advantage/disadvantage dice, the luck mechanic and in a small way the change to resistance rolls. The only thing I won't be changing is the to the firearms skill, as its WWC it has a lot of specialisation with weapons and I think it should do as its WW2 and there will be differences in how a sniper operates as opposed to a analyst or even toff with an interest in sharpshooting with a pistol.
I'm looking forward to it! Something a bit different anyway!

I've already gone full 7e with my group...was already doing a hybrid since the Quickstart rules were out. Last session I had two players running 7e and one still using a 6e character. We forcefully converted him last session.

It's still hard to Keep without reverting to old habits. I have to keep reminding myself to do combat and opposed skills in 7e mode. The new rules are making Keeping a lot more fun though. My fav's:

-Pushing Rolls and Burning Luck...brilliant!
-Speedier and more lethal combat...major and minor wounds a major improvement. Plus I like new automatic weapons rules alot.
-Getting rid of the Resistance Chart...could never stand that thing.
-Bonus and Penalty dice...a great boon for me as a Keeper, gives me another tool to modify and deter un-realistic game-play (a guy with 80% in brawl and dodge could beat up 5 thugs with ease in the past...not so much anymore).

When 7e is released (I wasn't able to be a backer on the Kickstarter...), I will definitely go over the new rules carefully and try to implement them to their fullest. At least all the non optional ones. I feel like 7e has been and is currently being playtested rather thoroughly... any hybrid I come up will not have been, and I could end up in a pickle that would have been easy to avoid. So for me it's one or the other, I'll either run 7e 100% when it drops, or, if I really don't like it after several sessions, I'll revert to 6e. But from what I can tell, 7e has a lot of great stuff to offer. Wish I had that PDF.

Wordcraftian wrote:When 7e is released (I wasn't able to be a backer on the Kickstarter...), I will definitely go over the new rules carefully and try to implement them to their fullest. At least all the non optional ones. I feel like 7e has been and is currently being playtested rather thoroughly... any hybrid I come up will not have been, and I could end up in a pickle that would have been easy to avoid. So for me it's one or the other, I'll either run 7e 100% when it drops, or, if I really don't like it after several sessions, I'll revert to 6e. But from what I can tell, 7e has a lot of great stuff to offer. Wish I had that PDF.

I can assure you that 7e as far as Keepering, is a blast. It's got me charged up to run again...just the little tweeks that were done makes for more dynamic storytelling.

fallingtower wrote:
I can assure you that 7e as far as Keepering, is a blast. It's got me charged up to run again...just the little tweeks that were done makes for more dynamic storytelling.

I certainly can't wait. Especially looking forward to simply digging into the rulebook, I can smell the nostalgia.

Speaking of 7e. Do you guys plan to use the optional luck spending mechanic? Why or why not?

Wordcraftian wrote:Speaking of 7e. Do you guys plan to use the optional luck spending mechanic? Why or why not?

I do plan to use Luck Spends in my 7e games. Far too often in CoC a player will be asked to make a skill roll, and due to the fate of the dice, the roll fails. Now, many times, the player will roll with the punches and see how the story unfolds with the failed roll. But other times the player will feel like he just missed something that he perceives as critical for the investigation, so in those instances I will allow a player to spend their Luck to have a successful roll.

During the play test of 7e, I learned first hand that the Luck spending mechanic can become a fast downward spiral. In the end of the scenario, I was down to only 9 Luck!!! So I had successfully driven the investigation to a point where I was at the climax of the scenario, but at that point I was nearly out of Luck. I then became truly dependent on the grace of the dice. I was so screwed!

I want my players to have that same experience. It was very compelling during game play. I loved it.

If it's a campaign or miniseries then a PC can use all the luck desired.

A one shot is a different beast. Someone with a starting luck of 90 points for a six hour game probably has too much. I'd make it a percentage in such cases like 20-50% depending on the scenario and length (I have one Cthulhu Dark Ages scenario that is roughly 12 hours and have run at cons).