Out of Character and Rules Discussion

[Mushgnome]

"I'm tired of these ***** worms on this ***** monorail!"

[Mushgnome]

Sorry for the lull in the action. Truth be told I'm delaying the arrival in Arkham until I've had a chance to read through the coming-soon illustrated Carcosa edition for inspiration.

I have never really liked the simplistic price lists in original D&D. Therefore starting now we will be using price of gear/weapon/armor/goods/services from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. These are are more "realistic" prices with separate lists for cities and villages.

Download the free no-art Grindhouse Rules & Magic PDF:
www.lotfp.com/RPG/products/lotfp-weird-fantasy-role-playing

It is possible we will begin using other rules from LotFP as time goes on. Eventually it may replace the out-of-print Men & Magic as our "Players Handbook" with Carcosa as the "DM's Guide/Monster Manual" and Chainmail as our combat engine.

There is one consequence of the LotFP rules swap: it uses "silver standard" instead of "gold standard" prices, so this means you get a one-time 10-fold boost in net worth. You guys are going to be filthy stinking rich! Your box of silver alone will buy a boat, or a small army of henchmen, or a business franchise! I personally hope you will blow it all in depraved Cthulhu-loving madness.

[Deleted]

Woohoo!! We're rich, we're rich!! 'throws silver in the air and dances'

[kipper]

That is, if Shade doesn't run off with the lot first... ;D

[ehiker133]

Just depends on whether or not you lot wakes up... ever.

Muwahahahahahahaha *cough* *cough*


hehe...

[ehiker133]

Dec 7, 2011 15:42:04 GMT -6 Mushgnome said:

"I'm tired of these ***** worms on this ***** monorail!"

lol. I just got this.

Snakes on a plane.

hehe.

[Mushgnome]

he he!

Speaking of which, any thoughts what you plan to do when you reach Arkham? Fated holds paperwork on a house in the hilly, wooded southwest corner of town, not far from the University. Also you have a toad-beast corpse for sale to a guy named Critters. In addition to all the resources of Arkham, you won't be far from the seafaring towns of Kingsport and Innsmouth. If I have an idea what you plan to buy/research/investigate/hire/etc. then I can do some prep work ahead of time. Also a reminder that those about to level up will need to find a safe place to hole up for the night.

The "canonical" Arkham map in HPL's own handwriting is here:
cthulhufiles.com/arkham.htm

Another very nice map here:
www.arkhamdrive-in.com/Blogarchive/aug-11.html

Carcosa 2.0 was released today, I have the PDF, the artwork is giving me inspiration to describe the people and city of Arkham, so we'll be moving along in the next couple of days. (ps anyone who owns a copy of either edition will recognize Mount Voormith’adreth as Hex 0402.)

If there are any lurkers reading this, maybe you just bought the new Carcosa and want to play, join us!

[Deleted]

I think a solid plan for the immediate future is:
1. find Critters and unload the corpse.
2. check out Fated's house, and buy a few supplies for living there.
3. check out the university!

[kipper]

+1

[ehiker133]

Sounds good to me!

[Mushgnome]

Confession: I lost exact tally of the company funds. If my memory is correct you have

156 gp (169 from the pastor minus 13 bribe to supervisor whitman)
4,000 sp
10,000 cp
topaz and jade
various gadgets and gizmos

Please remind me of any loot you found and I forgot!

You can start studying the price lists from the free Lamentations PDF if you like. This will give you an idea of the price of goods, services, hirelings, transport, etc. Use the City column, obviously, and be creative, for example horse=riding beetle. The conversion ratio is:

1 gold = 50 silver = 500 copper

Remember that I award XP for creative donations/expenditures/sacrifices to further the dark arts....

[kipper]

I will be away from my computer from Dec 23 through Dec 30. Please NPC Breath of New Moon as may be necessary. She’ll continue her negotiations with the Teamsters, as stated in my previous in-game post. If another player wants to take over negotiations while I’m away that’s fine with me .

Merry Christmas all !

[Deleted]

I apologize - for some reason I stopped getting updates before the dream combat in thread 11, so then I also never got any for thread 12, obviously. I've double-checked that I'm subscribed, so hopefully there are no further problems.

[Mushgnome]

No worries Migellito!

In fact I have no update for today myself.
We will be in low gear over the holidays... but I hope we can at least get your PCs a hot breakfast before the end of the year.

[Mushgnome]

Some major announcements for 2012:

We are going to playtest jacar's Draft #1 available here:

odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=chainmail&thread=6617&page=1

This will be an easier-to-obtain rules reference than the out-of-print original. The biggest change is 1d20 man-to-man combat instead of 2d6; it solves some mathematical problems I had with the original. A minor change in terminology: "Cavalry" replaces "Horse" for example "mutant allosaur, attacks as 2 Med Cav." Since there are no horses on Carcosa this change makes sense.

Another big change is the introduction of the "chance in 6" skill rules from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Everybody has a base 1-in-6 chance to pass any really difficult skill check, adjusted to the circumstances. If you've ever gamed with waysoftheearth you know how it works.

This calls for the addition of the Specialist class to the game. If you like playing a "skill monkey" this is the class for you. You will also encounter them as NPC thieves/mad scientists/rogues/sages. Specialists aren't very good fighters, but they get skill points (4 at 1st level + 2 each additional level) to improve their skills beyond 1 in 6.

As a special one-time Happy New Year to you: please choose 1 skill from the list below indicative of your PC's back-story. Your rank in this skill improves to 2 in 6.

Architecture
Bushcraft
Climb
Languages
Open Doors
Search
Sleight of Hand
Sneak Attack
Stealth
Tinker

I'm willing to entertain proposed skills not covered by the list above...

One last rules addition is "helmets and shields shall be sundered." Shields and helmets (10sp city/50sp rural apiece) can "soak" 1 die of damage but are destroyed in the process. This will help your PCs live longer, but you can expect intelligent foes may use this tactic against you as well.

Do the players have any proposed rules changes/additions/clarifications for the New Year?

[ehiker133]

PM sent regarding skill boost options.

No concerns here with the slight rule change or the 1-in-6 skill checks. I'm familiar with how they work.

[Deleted]

That all sounds fine. I think I'll go with 'search' as that is about the only one that strikes me as making sense for an ex-sorcerer's-igor.

[kipper]

I'll take "Languages" for Breath of New Moon.

[Mushgnome]

Search and Languages are both good choices, potentially highly profitable (Languages for decoding old treasure maps and the like, Search for actually finding the hidden loot once you get there).

Everybody have a wonderful (and responsible) New Years Eve!

[crusssdaddy]

Fated takes Stealth - he is an accomplished peeping tom and underwear drawer raider.

[Deleted]

happy new year everybody

[Mushgnome]

Happy New Year!

Stealth is a great choice for Fated.

Ways, would you like to choose a skill for Gunnery?

Story update coming soon as I have my coffee...

[waysoftheearth]

Jan 1, 2012 10:32:12 GMT -6 Mushgnome said:

Ways, would you like to choose a skill for Gunnery?

I think Gunnery will take the tinker skill. This seems to be in line with his delusions about the existence of high tech devices

[Mushgnome]

Tinker it is!

Breath = Languages
Fated = Stealth
Gunnery = Tinker
Minion = Search
Shade = secret mystery skill

[Mushgnome]

Seriously considering using this system for future player-character generation, it's hilarious & profanity laden!

lotfp.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-went-wrong-carcosa-character.html

[kipper]

Jan 11, 2012 10:38:51 GMT -6 Mushgnome said:

Think of this creepy old house as a dress-rehearsal for your next dungeon crawl. Imagine you are looting a mummy tomb or breaking into Miskatonic Library. What are the party's standard operating procedures for light sources, locked doors, traps, marching order, scouting the perimeter, supervising hirelings (2 strong laborers with a forklift)? Should we consider having a party Caller during crawling/exploration mode?

The prize is a good night's sleep, which will mean 2nd level for some of you... if you survive!

For the moment, Breath is watching the hirelings as they are carrying some very valuable cargo... in other circumstances, she would probably play a more active role in the exploration.

Jan 10, 2012 14:14:15 GMT -6 @migellito said:

To the party: "Are we done with the teamsters? I think we could probably have them deposit their load on the porch and be on their way."

We could keep them on as guides, but for the most part their usefulness may be done. I think we pay them by the day, so we may as well keep them at least until then.

[ehiker133]

If they're so good at carrying stuff from point A to point B, we could have them move all of the junk out of the one room to the back field so we can burn it!

[ehiker133]

Jan 13, 2012 11:44:14 GMT -6 @migellito said:

Minion quietly says "give me just a moment.." and then begins trying to stare 'past' the stars, letting his eyes move of their own accord. He slows his breathing and attempts to clear his mind. He will do this for either 5 minutes, or until he notices something 'come together.'

Little Kid: "Oh, look, a schooner!"

William: "ha ha ha... you dumb bastard! It's not a schooner; it's a sailboat!"

Little Kid: "A schooner IS a sailboat, stupid head."

[kipper]

Welcome pessimisthalfling/Vociferous Bastard! ;D

[pessimisthalfling]

Jan 13, 2012 12:10:46 GMT -6 kipper said:

Welcome pessimisthalfling/Vociferous Bastard! ;D

Thanks Kipper! :-)