How does a Call of Cthulhu ritual really work? If for instance an Investigator finds an old tome with a spell in it, how does he correctly pronounce the words? And if correct pronunciation is required for the spell to be correctly cast, how do you know the correct pronunciation? Trial and error?
So how in the heck would you know how to pronounce this if you just pick up a tome with this phrase? And if this book is written in Latin, Ancient Greek, Phoenician, or Aramaic, is the phrase written phonetically? Do you use that language's intonation?
If you're trying to summon Cthulhu, I assume calling him by the right name is important. Can you imagine calling some powerful godlike being by the wrong name? "Hello, I'm trying to reach Cat-hoo-loo, I mean, Ka-hu-hu, um, Khlûl'-hloo?" Can you imagine how pissed Cthulhu would be?
Does the creature just show up out of curiosity? Not because the ritual worked, but because there's a disturbance in the time-space continuum and he's curious or pissed off at being called the wrong name?
In one game, I thought it would be a cool to have a spell book written by the Serpent Men of Valusia, but the spell caster would have to have a bifurcated tongue in order to pronounce the spells properly. So, a cultist or Investigator would have to bifurcate their tongue in order to cast a spell from the book. Imagine if you had to do body modifications in order to cast spells.
But if correct pronunciation is required for casting spells, Investigators will never cast a spell successfully. And if saving the world hinges on the successful first cast of ritual, the Investigators will always fail. So, is intention only required? Is positive thinking only required? Positive thinking, mispronunciation, and a sacrifice of POW or Magic Points only needed? If mispronunciation is ok, then can a cultist just chant some nonsense or a sing pop song and it would work? Then why even write these unpronounceable words down in the spell book?
VirtuaCon is a free online convention. Amazingly, there's a lot of Cthulhu games being run over three days.
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10/6/2016, Friday 11am Game Duration: 4 hours
Adventure: The Keepers of the Woods
Game: Trail of Cthulhu Game Master: Freddie Foulds Genre: Investigative Horror Brief: An unexpected letter invites members of the Miscellany Society from the safety of bustling London to the isolated village of Postbridge, Dartmoor. Experience: Some experience needed Pre Gens: Pregenerated Characters Provided Run on: Google Hangouts Maturity: 18+ Only Seats Available: 4
Details January 1935 - The arrival of a letter from your friend and fellow member of the Miscellany Society, Professor Margaret Blackwood, invites you out to shadowed Dartmoor. The Professor believes that she has discovered a career defining find, and something that is of great interest to the Society members - a group who actively worship an ancient god nestled in the heart of the secluded village of Postbridge...
This was a contest winning scenario run by the writer. We had a good table of players and I really enjoyed this scenario. The game ended in a TPK.
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The Mossy Man (Huntsman) and his Hunting Hounds were part of the local legends.
We found a stretch of road where our friend had died and it began to look like her auto accident was staged to cover up her murder. We also almost had an accident in the same stretch of road, either due to Hairy Hands or a badly graded dip in the road.
We started to find out that the Church and a portion of the townspeople were involved in a cult that was either binding something or keeping something out. The ritual area was bounded by lay lines.
Every 27 years or so, a sacrifice of 3 people were required to refresh the binding. Headstones in the Church cemetary supported this.
We found a book in the Church safe and one of the players read the book and learned the ritual and counter ritual.
The PC convinced us that we should do the counter ritual. At this point, I, as a player, suspected this was the wrong thing, but my PC had no clue, so went along with the counter ritual.
After a climatic battle against the cult and casting the counter ritual, we released the Huntsman and the Hunt TPKed the party and the surrounding counties.
Overall, I really enjoyed the investigation and the ties into old and urban legends. I was familiar with both the Wild Hunt and the urban legend of Dartmoor's Hairy Hands, so it was cool to see this tied into a scenario.
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10/7/2017, Sat 11am
Game Duration: 4 hours Adventure: Dark Alley Deals Game System: Yellow King RPG Game Master: Jon Hook Genre: Investigative Horror Brief: Paris, 1895, is the cultural center of the world. Artists are drawn to this city, like moths to the flame. As young students of the arts, you are having the time of your life. Of course, not everyone in Paris is as fortunate as you. The beggars and urchins fill the alleys and gutters, but they aren't so bad. But, ever since a strange play has become popular, some of the tramps seem to acting... odd. You're sure it's nothing, but still... you can't help but wonder who that dark stranger in the shadows at the back of the alley is. Experience: None Required (Rules Taught as needed) Pre Gens: Pregenerated Characters Provided Maturity: 18+ Only - due to mature and disturbing subject matter Seats Available: 6
Details: Dark Alley Deals is a scenario written by Jon Hook for the soon-to-be published Yellow King RPG. This game uses the Gumshoe engine by Pelgrane Press.
I supported the KickStarter and I'm playing in a play test of Yellow King RPG (YKRPG), the next evolution of Trail of Cthulhu (ToC), a merger of ToC and the One-2-One system used in Cthulhu Confidential. (My review of Cthulhu Confidential)
So, I was curious as to how Jon Hook would run this new system.
I enjoyed the game, but the table seemed very crowded with 6 players. In the play test, we only had 3 players. One of the PC hooks is "I rely on" and "I seek to protect" where you pick another PC. The funny thing is that in both this game and in the play test, nobody has filled this out.
But "That Damn Peculiar Business," a PC hook into the scenario is a wonderful innovation and both this game and in the play test, we used it to great effect.
I found the shocks and injuries more interesting than the ToC lack luster combat system, but finding the cards (out of possibly 100s) and handing them out are still a bit fiddly and interrupts the flow of the game. If you PC has 3 shocks or 3 injuries, your character is either insane or dead.
For me the jury is still out on YKRPG. There are things I like and things that I don't.
In this game, we mainly ran into evidence of the Thin Man affecting human affairs. In the end, only one PC survived, one went insane, and the rest were lost in Carcosa.
I enjoyed this game, but found the table too crowded.
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We found a baker puting a strange cheese into unsalted bread and handing them out to the homeless. The homeless were mutating into odd toothy sewer dwellers.
After exploring the sewers under Paris and encountering a rabble of mutated homeless, we found the Thin Man was responsible. Salt had an effect on the "cheese" and the mutated homeless.
Two PCs had decided to distract a rabble of homeless and were invited to speak to the Thin Man, afterwards the PCs were lost in Carcosa.
In the end, the rest of the PCs confronted the Thin Man. Due to how the game resolution system worked, one PC returned home alive and well (success), another returned home but insane (success but too many shocks), and the other two PCs were lost in Carcosa (failures).
