"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."
Buck Owens & Roy Clark
Gloom, Despair and Agony On Me
From the TV Show "Hee-Haw" (1969 -1992)
In Call of Cthulhu (CoC) 7th Edition, one of the best Optional rules is Spending Luck. See Keeper Rulebook p.99, Optional Rules, Spending Luck.
I allow Luck spends in Campaigns and one-shots and even in combat.
At first I was cautious, thinking this would reduce too much risk for the Players and make the game too easy or less exciting. If you can use Luck to save your bacon, then where is the threat and thrill of escaping a tight situation by the skin of your teeth?
I started by running Horror on the Orient Express, but decided you couldn't Recover Luck. See Keeper Rulebook p.99, Recovering Luck. But soon, the PCs were down to single digit Luck and were grousing about their low luck. So, I relented and allowed Luck Recovery. Even funnier was when I was requiring Group Luck rolls (Group Luck is where the PC with the Lowest Luck rolls for the whole group) to see if a specific NPC was available to be interviewed and one PC had 8 Luck and the PCs wanted to leave that PC out so their group Luck would be higher. I immediately vetoed that because that meant that they would leave the PC out of critical scenes and I thought that wouldn't be fair to the Player. So, I decided group Luck was spooky at a distance. You cannot leave someone out of a scene to have a better Group Luck. That bad luck is like a loadstone, it affects everyone in their group even if the bad luck PC is sitting alone in a hotel room and everyone else is out investigating. I told them jokingly that their only solution was to murder that PC since the replacement PC would have higher luck.
I was still worried that Luck would make one-shots too easy. I then played in Pandora's Box run by Mike Mason. He said I could spend luck, except in the 3rd act. e.g. the big fight/encounter at the end of most scenarios. The game turned out fine. In retrospect, getting clues isn't a game breaker for CoC. In Trail of Cthulhu (ToC) clues are given out freely; it's the interpretation of the clues that is hard. This also applies to CoC.
Is handing out clues bad? No. Clues are there because they're there to be found. If not, the clues shouldn't even be there. In one scenario, I noticed that everything was laid out for the PCs if they got an Extreme success. There was more of a mystery if they had gotten a Regular or Hard success. I argue that that was a badly written scenario. Don't put anything there unless you expect the PCs to uncover it. The only reason to hand the solution to them on a silver platter is that that wasn't the whole game because there's an additional treasure hunt for the required items or the simple instructions aren't simple to execute.
Anyway, after playing in Pandora's Box, I started allowing Luck Spends in one-shots, even during combat in the 3rd act. It has not changed the games very much. Finding clues and getting to the final act is where you want the PCs to wind up at anyway. Who wants to sit out a one-shot after getting killed early? Why hand out a replacement character when you don't have to? Players are generally less invested in the replacement character than their original.
For one-shots, the only issue is if the PCs have a high Luck score, there is no reason for a Player to conserve Luck and will spend it freely, making the finale sometimes less than exciting. In combat, they can make every combat roll an Extreme success. They can make sure their ritual succeeds by spending enough Luck. Some published scenarios tell the Players to roll their Luck score randomly as an ice breaker. Just due to random chance, someone might have too much Luck. I would limit the amount of Luck pre-gens have for a one-shot to something between 40-60 points. If the PC is an academic, allow more points (60 pts) since they'll mostly use them for uncovering clues. If a combat character, less points (40 Luck). If you just want to be fair, then just give every pre-gen PC 50 Luck.
I generally do individual Luck rolls to see who a creature attacks. The one with the worst roll result would get attacked. This seemed the most fair and I've seen a PC with 6 Luck make his Luck roll and a PC with a higher Luck fail and be attacked. This makes it more non-deterministic and does give the PC with bad luck a chance.
I ran 4 sessions of Crimson Carnivale at GenCon Online this weekend. In one game, I had 6 PCs face a creature and I didn't want to spend the time figuring out who was going to be attacked, so I used Mike Mason's method, the PC with the lowest Luck would be targeted. Once the surviving PCs fled, it started hunting the PCs down one at a time, from lowest Luck to the highest. This actually turned out great. The low luck PCs had a smaller chance of beating the creature, so they would die. It'll continue until it faced the last remaining PC. At the end, the final PC was able to kill the creature. "I alone was able to tell the tale." So, I recommend using this method for one-shots at a Convention game.
One issue I did run into is that with Luck spends, there are a lot fewer Pushes. See Keeper Rulebook p.84, Pushing the Roll. Pushes are a lot of fun. Now, the only time a PC pushes a roll is if they think the Luck spend is too costly or if they have a high skill score and the chance of failure is low.
In summary:
- Allow Luck Spends for campaigns and one-shots, and even during combat, even during the last act of a scenario*.
- For one-shots, limit the amount of Luck pre-gens start with. 50 Luck is a good rule of thumb.
- In a one-shot convention game, go with attacking the PC with the lowest luck, especially in a survival horror game.
*If you are unsure, I recommend making your own house rule just to see what works and tweak it based on your experience. Examples of house rules:
- No Luck spends during combat.
- No Luck spends during the 3rd act / finale.
- Limit Luck spends to 20 points per skill check.
- Limit Luck spends to 20% of your beginning of session Luck score per skill check. e.g. Luck score at start of session is 60. 20% is 12. You cannot spend more than 12 Luck per skill check.
- Limit Luck spends to adjusting a skill check to one Difficulty Level only: Failure to Regular success. Regular to Hard success. Hard to Extreme success.
- Limit Luck spends to adjusting a Failure to a Regular success only. Higher levels of success are not allowed.
Also remember Luck spends have limits to what they can change:
- Luck can only alter your own die roll. Not someone else's.
- A Pushed Roll cannot be changed with Luck.
- Luck can only be spent on % die rolls and cannot be spent on SAN rolls or Luck rolls. i.e. Luck can only be spent on Skill rolls and Attribute tests (non-Sanity save throws).
- Luck cannot be used to mitigate Criticals, Fumbles, and firearm Malfunctions. If someone Criticals you or you Fumble or suffer a Malfunction; that's bad luck and no amount of good luck can change it -- unless you're playing Pulp Cthulhu.
- If you spent Luck to convert a Failure to a Success, no skill improvement check is earned. Also, you can't spend Luck during the Investigator Development Phase to improve your skill score.
Q (MH): Picking who the monster attacks. You said you used individual Luck rolls. What do you mean?
A (MH): I have everyone roll their Luck. I look for who Failed and by how many points. If a PC had 6 Luck and rolled a 26, he failed by 20 points. If another PC had Luck 80 and rolled an 81, he failed by 1 point. The monster would attack the person who failed by 20 points. This works more for online games where you can immediately see all the die rolls (and Luck scores). Optionally, if you don't want to do the math, you can just pick from all the PCs who Failed, the one with the lowest Luck score.
If everyone succeeded, then I'll look at everyone who had a Regular success (ignoring the PCs with Hard and Extreme successes) and do the same math, but pick the person with the slimer success margin. e.g. PC with 6 Luck rolled a 4, he succeeded with 2 point margin. PC with 80 Luck rolled a 79, he succeeded with a 1 point margin. PC who succeeded by 1 gets attacked. Optionally, if you don't want to do the math, you can just pick the PC with the lowest Luck score in this grouping.
If necessary, I'll repeat with Hard successes. Then move onto Extreme successes.
Q (MD): In Edge of Darkness, one of the pre-gens in the Starter Kit has a "satchel containing a small science kit". What's in it?
A (MH): Depends on the science, but I would put a small magnifying glass, tweezers, a small knife to scrape samples, several vials of chemicals/reagents, collection bottles, cotton balls, matches. Beyond this, it's a bag of many things. The PC must make a Luck roll for any reasonable additional item. Or let them decide the first 5 items with the above as suggestions. Anything else requires a Luck roll. GM can veto any item that's too big or game breaking.
In Trail of Cthulhu, the Preparedness skill would allow a PC to pull equipment out when necessary. This would be similar to the Luck roll I outlined, especially if you allow Luck spends.
Q (MH): During a scene, a Player asks if a specific item is in the room. What do I do?
A (MH): Unless it is obvious that item should be there or not, I generally ask for an individual Luck roll. Success means the item is there. This generally happens when they're looking for an improvised weapon or a source of fire. But before I answer, I always ask what the Player's intention is. If it's for an improvised weapon, then I would generally just tell the PC what's available as an improvised weapon (a room with a fireplace would have a fireplace poker or fireplace shovel) without a need for a die roll. I can usually envision what a standard bedroom or kitchen would contain. If I truly don't know what's in the room (some published scenarios are like this) or the house is abandoned (movers and looters may have stripped the room), then I'd ask for the die roll.
Q (MH): Sometimes a PC wants to visit a NPC's home. The NPC can be there to be questioned or the PCs can rummage through the home (Breaking and Entering) if the NPC is absent. How do I decide what happens?
A (MH): I ask the PCs would they rather the NPC be at home or not. What do they expect? Then I ask for a Group Luck roll and if the die roll is a success, they get to choose. On failure, they get something they didn't expect. e.g. They expect the NPC to be at home and wanted to talk to him. On failure, the NPC is not at home.
I prefer doing this than a coin flip because if the PC's luck holds out, they get to do what they intended to do.
Q (AR): A question for those keepers who use an optional Luck spending rule. How do you use it in opposed rolls?
I assume it is obvious you need to tell what level of success they need to achieve in order to win. But how do you describe intentions of the other party? A player should make an informed decision about spending Luck or not, but on the other hand they should not know what is happening until it happens, as it takes away much of tension and horror.
For example, a warlock tries to mesmerize an investigator (a spell requires opposed POW rolls). How would you describe the situation to the player, but keep your game both fair and immersive?
A (MH): I never make it a surprise.
I assume if the PC makes their save throw, they would have felt the outside influence and resisted it, so it's a battle of wills. I wouldn't tell them exactly what's happening, but give them enough of a clue as to what the consequences are for failing and the cost of success. Then the Player can make an informed decision.
I tell the player that you start to lose your self control and will power to an outside influence (note that I don't tell them where the threat is coming from). Roll POW. Do you want to spend 23 Luck to fight this off?
If you want to obscure it a bit more, you can say, "You feel some dark influence try to wiggle into your mind. Do you let it? No? Roll POW. Do you want to spend 23 Luck to fight it off?"
Or the Dracula version of Mesmerize, "The cloaked figure is staring into your eyes intently, raising one of his hands and gestures to you. Roll POW. Do you want to spend 23 Luck and break eye contact?"
