I've been playing in a online 'soap opera with supernatural elements' game, which spawned this: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog/games/001343.shtml Which is an edited version of of this: http://www.dreamlyrics.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=110;t=000135;p=7 So I get the stupid idea of turning it into a Call of Cthulhu convention game.... The premise is that the PCs are connected with a heavy metal band who's singer is into Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. The plot revolves around his inclusion of passages of the Necronomicon in song lyrics, and worse still, getting audiences to chant "Ph'nglui Mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl Fhtagn! Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fthagn!", which causes dire and horrible things to happen. Do you think this idea will work? Will something like this actually make a good convention scenario? I'm trying to work out who should be the PCs in the game. I think the singer would pretty much have to be an NPC, as he would either start the game insane, or go insane during the game. I think some of the rest of the band *could* be PCs. Other PCs might be the band's sleazy manager, a roadie, a music journalist and a groupie. I'm not sure about pacing. I'm envisaging the game starting off as This Is Spinal Tap, the RPG, then shifting gears to horror half way through, as the chant makes horrible things happen. Then there's the question of the nature of the horrible things. Would the chant summon some Squamous and Rugose Mythos creature? Or should the singer *become* the monster, as a sorcerer wielding unholy power? I think I have the core of an idea, but it still needs a lot of work. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
On Mon, 24 Oct 2005, Tim Hall wrote: TH>Then there's the question of the nature of the horrible things. Would TH>the chant summon some Squamous and Rugose Mythos creature? Or should TH>the singer *become* the monster, as a sorcerer wielding unholy power? I'd expect it to start with something subtler: concertgoers start doing horrible things. You know, the sort of things people *expect* to blame on heavy metal music... only, that's sort of getting into cliche territory, so you'd have to come up with some way to make it interesting. Maybe it summons Squamous and Rugose (I think those are trademarked) Mythos (that one's probably registered, even) creatures who don't appear until *after* the tour's moved on. -- Karen J. Cravens silver@phoenyx.net ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
Karen J. Cravens wrote: > I'd expect it to start with something subtler: concertgoers start doing > horrible things. You know, the sort of things people *expect* to blame on > heavy metal music... only, that's sort of getting into cliche territory, > so you'd have to come up with some way to make it interesting. A lot depends on the length of the game. I'd envisaged the first couple of shows taking place before the album comes out (as often happens). The pace picks up once the album's released and fans know the song and sings along with it. > Maybe it summons Squamous and Rugose (I think those are trademarked) > Mythos (that one's probably registered, even) creatures who don't appear > until *after* the tour's moved on. That would work. So they keep hearing on the news or read in the paper about the gruesome cult murders in the towns they played two or three nights ago. So by the end of the tour there's a couple of dozen of the things loose, bodies piling up, and the only way to dispel them is to get a new version of the song with a reversed version of the ritual played on daytime radio. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
On Tue, 25 Oct 2005, Tim Hall wrote: TH>So by the end of the tour there's a couple of dozen of the things loose, TH>bodies piling up, and the only way to dispel them is to get a new TH>version of the song with a reversed version of the ritual played on TH>daytime radio. Or the PC's are the opening act and they have to figure out enough of the rituals to produce a counter-ritual, without being sucked into madness themselves. -- Karen J. Cravens silver@phoenyx.net ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
Tim Hall wrote: > I think I have the core of an idea, but it still needs a lot of work. Maybe this is the second time this has happened. The last time, at the Great White concert, someone had to set the place on fire to stop the minions from escaping. > Other PCs might be the band's sleazy manager, a roadie, a > music journalist and a groupie. You could make the characters concertgoers, buddies of the band who have backstage passes, to skip having the characters off separately doing work (unloading equipment, going over the books, etc. etc.) instead of roleplaying together. This would also let you give them an interesting skill mix if you want. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
Steve Barr wrote: > Maybe this is the second time this has happened. The last time, > at the Great White concert, someone had to set the place on fire > to stop the minions from escaping. I would probably avoid using that tragedy in the game; it's too recent, and would be a bit too much like using 9/11 in a game. > You could make the characters concertgoers, buddies of the band > who have backstage passes, to skip having the characters off > separately doing work (unloading equipment, going over the books, > etc. etc.) instead of roleplaying together. This would also > let you give them an interesting skill mix if you want. I realised early on that the skill mix of the band members might be too limiting. I might base some PCs on characters in the online game; one of the fans is a Goth librarian, who seems a good choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 05:06:50PM -0500, Tim Hall wrote: >Do you think this idea will work? Will something like this actually >make a good convention scenario? I've played in a game with this premise, though I don't know whether it was a published Cthulhu adventure or something the GM made up. The only problem was that we knew in advance it was _Call of Cthulhu_, so we were _expecting_ eldritch nastiness. >I'm trying to work out who should be the PCs in the game. I think the >singer would pretty much have to be an NPC, as he would either start the >game insane, or go insane during the game. >I think some of the rest of the band *could* be PCs. Other PCs might be >the band's sleazy manager, a roadie, a music journalist and a groupie. If you've access to a copy of Misty Lackey's _Children of the Night_, there's some decent group-dynamic in there as a band comes under the influence of a dubious Svengali-figure. >Then there's the question of the nature of the horrible things. Would >the chant summon some Squamous and Rugose Mythos creature? Or should >the singer *become* the monster, as a sorcerer wielding unholy power? In a longer-term game the audience would become cultists, going off and starting their own... "fan clubs". :-) -- Roger, gaming grognard Lots of role-playing stuff: http://tekeli.li/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
Roger Burton West wrote: > I've played in a game with this premise, though I don't know whether it > was a published Cthulhu adventure or something the GM made up. The only > problem was that we knew in advance it was _Call of Cthulhu_, so we were > _expecting_ eldritch nastiness. That's the problem with a lot of horror games; you start acting paranoid when your characters have no reason to. Definitely *not* specifically a CoC problem. > If you've access to a copy of Misty Lackey's _Children of the Night_, > there's some decent group-dynamic in there as a band comes under the > influence of a dubious Svengali-figure. Never read any Lackey. I've been put off her writing by her quote about cliches being useful shortcuts for readers... I'd actually *like* to base the band on the characters in the online game, rather than just use the concept, because I may be running the game for some of the same players. (Which probably heightens the problem above). > In a longer-term game the audience would become cultists, going off and > starting their own... "fan clubs". :-) This will probably be a one-shot rather than a campaign, but that's worth thinking about for a possible sequel. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
