Category: Mythos

Project for a game of investigative Lovecraftian horror incorporating elements of tabletop roleplaying and other tabletop games.

Basic Scenario Prep

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This post is actually a more detailed response to a question on Reddit about prepping for a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Unfortunately, the comment limitations forced me to post an abbreviated response, so this is the more detailed post. It’s still a little rough, and far from comprehensive, but these are the basics of a method for prepping to run an investigative scenario. It can be extremely helpful for newer Keepers, as well as help reveal potential pitfalls in published scenarios before running them.

This applies primarily to prepping pre-made/published scenarios (including sandbox campaigns), but most of this can still apply to more free-form or improvised scenarios to one extent or another.

  • Read through the scenario to get some basic familiarity.
  • Identify the Fail-State. (Or if you like: Identify the Impending Doom)
    • What happens if the investigators fail – or if they don’t become involved at all?
    • This really helps understand what’s going on behind the scenes and is very useful when the investigators get sidetracked and you need to instill a sense of urgency.
    • For many scenarios this is fairly obvious – something like the cult summons a Great Old One, and so the apocalypse begins. But it’s amazing how many scenarios don’t really go into this – even popular ones like The Haunting, Paper Chase, etc.
  • What does success look like? What do the investigators need to accomplish to end the scenario successfully?
    • I’ve actually had scenarios flounder at the end because we couldn’t decide where to actually end things – this helps with that.
    • More importantly, it lets you determine one crucial thing…
  • What conclusion do the players need to reach in order for the investigators to be successful?
    • In the Masks of Nyarlathotep Peru Prologue, for example, the investigators need to return a gold artifact to its place in a pyramid in order to end the scenario successfully. So the players need to reach the conclusion that the artifact must be returned to the pyramid.
    • Understanding what conclusion the players must reach helps you identify which clues are really important and recognize holes in the scenario that could cause the investigation to stall.
  • Identify Locations & Characters. Make a list of all the locations and characters in the scenario. Also list any important artifacts, tomes, etc.
    • If you’re not sure if you should include something in these lists, ask yourself this question: Can this place/person/thing provide the investigators/players with information that will help them reach the conclusion or help them find other clues? If so, add it to the list.
  • Build Clues (Identify, Categorize, Organize, Fill Holes)
    • I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on this subject, but here’s the quick version.
    • This step is arguably the most central to how I prep for investigative scenarios, and in some ways it’s also what’s different about how I prep. Essentially, you are going to re-read the entire scenario and write down every clue you can find. Then you’re going to categorize and organize them.
    • Distinguish between clues and their sources. A translation of an ancient tome is not a clue, but the information contained within it likely includes many clues.
    • Treat clues as discrete, individual pieces of information – and write them that way. Write each clue as its own brief phrase or sentence, separate from other clues. If it’s remotely conceivable that the investigators could learn one piece of information but not the other, then they should be two separate clues.
    • This will likely result in a long list of clues – I had nearly 60 clues for the Masks Peru Prologue.
    • Categorize each clue as either Core or Supporting.
      • Core clues either lead to more sources of clues (locations, characters, etc.) or are vital to the players reaching the correct conclusion. Keep in mind that the players need not understand the conclusion to reach it. For example, the players don’t need to understand why returning the golden artifact to the Peruvian pyramid will resolve thing, as long as they figure out that it’s necessary.
      • Supporting clues are everything else. They don’t lead to new sources and are not critical to reaching the correct conclusion, but they do provide more information that explains things. These are the clues that help the players understand what’s going on. They might even help players reach the correct conclusion early, but they’re not necessary.
    • Organize your clues by the location(s) where they may be found. This can overlap into the next couple of steps if clues could be available only at certain times (in specific encounters). Also consider that clues can be static or floating.
      • If a clue can only logically be obtained in specific locations or encounters, then it is a static clue.
      • If a clue could easily be assigned to multiple locations/encounters, consider making it a floating clue. The location of floating clues is not determined ahead of time, instead the Keeper includes it in whichever encounter makes the most sense during play (or whenever the investigators need some new information to move things along). For example, the Master’s Last Will and Testament contains some important clues, but it could reasonably be found in several places throughout the house (or even elsewhere). The Keeper waits until the investigation has progressed a while, then when the investigators search the next possible location of the Will, the Keeper provides it.
    • Make sure that there are sufficient Core Clues to lead players to the correct conclusion. Also make sure that there is a clear path (or paths) lead to each of your Core Clues, locations, and encounters. Consider how the investigators would need to interact with each potential source of clues in order to obtain all of the Core Clues. You may find some holes in your scenario that you need to fill.
      • Holes that can cause the investigation to stall are often caused by the players needing information pointing to a specific location or source, but there is either no actual clue providing that information, or the action necessary to reveal that clue is not intuitive. Making a Clue Map can help identify these gaps.
      • For example, in Dead Man Stomp, the players need to end up going to a funeral the next day (where they receive more clues), and the latest version of the scenario makes it very clear that the Keeper needs to get them to understand the funeral is important. However, there are perhaps two clues that lead to the funeral, and there is very little that would even lead to the investigators receiving those clues. Understanding the holes in the scenario from this perspective makes it obvious why so many Keepers run into challenges when running it.
  • Identify Encounters & Opposition
    • Working through your list of locations, identify the encounters that could occur at each. Some locations may only have a single encounter, while others could have several. For each encounter, identify what opposition exists. What do the investigators have to overcome to accomplish their goal(s) in the encounter (obtain the clues or items, get assistance, escape, etc.)? In other words, what rolls do they need to make and against what? (This bit could vary somewhat depending on what system you’re using and your preferred style of play.) Some encounters may not have any opposition, if a helpful character or other source of information is simply providing clues now that the investigators have located it.
  • Encounter Summaries
    • Write a brief summary of each encounter, including:
      • Encounter Location
      • Character(s) introduced & character(s) present
      • Core and Supporting clues available in the encounter
      • Other relevant items, artifacts, tomes, etc. found in the encounter
      • Opposition that may be faced
      • Handouts or props that may be found in the encounter
  • Clue & Encounter Maps
    • Optional but very helpful (especially for longer/more involved scenarios), make Encounter and Clue Maps.
    • Encounter Map simply shows how encounters lead to one another (determined by the clues provided by each).
      • Group encounters at the same location together. Use arrows to lead from one encounter to others. If you have multiple pages, consider color-coding by location. Note which encounters are optional. Consider using different markings to show which pathways are based on Core Clues and which are Supporting.
    • Clue Maps are more involved, but this is where everything can come together.
      • Shows how encounters and investigator actions lead to clues, and how those clues lead to other locations and encounters. Full map includes all clues and encounters, but I also find it useful to make a second Clue Map with just the Core Clues and how they lead the players to the correct conclusion.
    • I’ll post examples from my Masks Peru prep, as that will probably be more helpful than trying to explain. Here’s a PDF of those clue and encounter maps.
PDF of Clue and Encounter Maps
  • Cards & Props
    • Figure out what props you want and get them together.
    • I’m working on a method for playing CoC scenarios with my family that includes making cards for clues, locations, and characters. It’s been extremely successful so far and helps avoid some common issues that can come up in investigative games. So one of my last steps is to make these cards – along with some blank ones I can use if unexpected stuff comes up in play.

Descend into Madness

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Have even a passing interest in investigative roleplaying or the Mythos?
Drop by the base113 Subreddit to comment, ask questions, or just check out how you might apply some of the ideas discussed to your own games.

Works-in-progress and notes are often posted on the Subreddit, as are more general discussions related to Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Delta Green and Fate gameplay.

A Glimpse into Madness

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Work continues, and as usual, I’ve been bouncing back and forth between different parts of the project. The goal is still primarily to play with my family, but I always try to write as though someone else is going to see it, and I will almost certainly end up sharing this.

As a result, I’m having to consider writing this to cover a few different perspectives. There’s the common dichotomy of audiences that are familiar with RPGs and those that aren’t. There are many who would argue that there is no need to write for people new to such games – it’s not like anyone is going to pick this up off a shelf in a major bookstore. However, given the attention mythos games are getting these days, it’s not inconceivable that someone online might stumble upon this project. Plus, I want someone who is familiar with tabletop RPGs to be able to just share a copy with someone who is not – like me handing a copy to a member of my family – and have things make at least a little sense.

I’m focusing on two key chapters at the moment. What You Need to Know is intended to cover all the basics – introducing the basic concepts, the genre, and how the game is structured. Aspects are a key part of the Fate Core system, and they set it apart from virtually every other game out there – so the other chapter focuses on what they are and how they are used.

Keeping with the idea of writing as though someone else will see it, I cannot help but try and lay things out in at least a moderately acceptable fashion. Here are a couple of 2-page spreads in progress from the What You Need to Know chapter.

The comments in the sidebars will change and evolve as work progresses, and I will eventually end up inserting something in the blank space in the lower left of the second spread. If you have any feedback or questions about the layouts, please post them at r/base113Games.

On the Nature of the Mythos and Sanity

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A fundamental tenet of cosmic horror is that the true nature of reality is incomprehensible to the human mind and that being faced with evidence of this reality damages the psyche. What humans perceive as the real world is only a thin veneer over a much darker truth – and that truth is so alien to our understanding that our human minds cannot even contemplate it without serious risk. This dark reality which is so alien to our perception of existence is the Mythos.

Exposure to the Mythos, even briefly, has a deleterious effect on the human mind. Sometimes we are able to delude ourselves into believing there is a rational explanation for what we have seen and heard, thus insulating ourselves from the horrible truth. At other times a person’s mind may twist and fracture to protect them from really perceiving the nature of reality – those are the lucky ones. Others are far less fortunate, as their very being is transformed to integrate the truth of the Mythos into what was once their understanding of the world around them.

One thing is always true, those that catch even the briefest glimpse of the terrible truth are forever changed.

A character that has faced exposure to the Mythos is fundamentally changed by the experience. Their perception of reality is altered – they literally perceive the world around them differently from those that have not seen what they have seen. They see and hear things which other humans do not; their senses of taste, touch, and smell are no longer the same. They may even begin to experience sensations that do not fit our normal human concepts of the senses. This may start small, bordering on imperceptible, but as a character is repeatedly exposed to greater evidence of the awful truth of the Mythos, this change becomes even more profound. (On the GM/Keeper side of the table, this can be used to provide a player with Clues due to their character being able to perceive things other cannot. Of course, Compels based on seeing or hearing things are also fertile grounds for the Keeper to play around in.)

Of course, different characters may respond to exposure to the Mythos in different ways.

Trail of Cthulhu by Pelgrane Press recognized that there are often two different forms of “insanity” in cosmic horror. The first could be thought of as “stark, raving mad” – yelling, crying, screaming, drooling, catatonic, furious scribbling, fits, (presumably) irrational fears – everything that would cause a casual observer to think “he’s nuts.” On the other hand, there are those that appear outwardly normal, even serene, when they are really anything but. Think of a villain that wants to destroy the world to “protect us from ourselves,” a serial killer who selects victims based on whose voice will make the best addition to the “choir” in his mind, or a woman that believes her spirit must be purified by fire before she can attain godhood.

In Our Terrible Fate, each character’s long-term “mental health” is represented by his or her Sanity Aspect and Sanity Stress Track. Before being exposed to the Mythos or suffering other horrific experiences, their Sanity Stress Track is clear, and their Sanity Aspect describes their overall worldview. That worldview could be as benign as If You Dwell in the Past, You’ll Get Left Behind or as extreme as Forgiveness is Between Them and God; It’s My Job to Arrange the Meeting.

As characters encounter the Mythos and evidence of mankind’s true insignificance in the universe – not to mention other more mundane horrors that can nonetheless cause the mind to reel – they will mark off stress on their Sanity Stress Track. Certain points along the track are marked as Warped, Twisted, and Broken. As a character takes sufficient stress to their Sanity to cross these thresholds, their Sanity Aspect changes to reflect how their worldview has changed in response to all they have seen and done. For example, If You Dwell in the Past, You’ll Get Left Behind can be warped into Those that Dwell in the Past Should Be Left Behind. Later, it may become twisted into Only Those that Look to the Future Are Worth Saving.

When changing Sanity Aspects over time, players should consider how they wish to portray their character’s gradual descent into insanity. Are they fortunate enough to be incapable of grasping the truth of the Mythos, as their mind literally fractures itself, slowly cracking in a desperate attempt to shield itself from the horrible nature of reality? These poor souls may eventually be reduced to gibbering lunatics locked away in an asylum, but at least they retain some of what makes them human.

On the other hand, perhaps they are able to come to grips with mankind’s utterly insignificant place in the cosmos. Rather than protecting itself, their mind adapts and remakes itself to accept the terrible truth of reality. These are those that truly become lost to the Mythos. Though they may appear unchanged, their perceptions are so utterly altered that they no longer have the same concerns or cares as the rest of mankind. Though they may be biologically unchanged, their minds have become so utterly alien that they are, for all intents and purposes, no longer human.

In either case, once a character succumbs to insanity – be that raving madman or shell that was once human – they are no longer a playable character.

(Again, on the GM/Keeper side of things, when describing Consequences it is wise to consider how a character is being portrayed as they struggle to retain some semblance of sanity. That’s not to say that an investigator who has been gradually drifting towards megalomania and delusions of grandeur should never be temporarily reduced to a muttering, quivering lump of flesh with an acute fear of open spaces – feel free to mix things up when it makes for a good story – but a player shouldn’t feel forced down a different path into madness simply because the Keeper kept repeatedly throwing out a particular style of Consequence.)

Investigator Board Mockup

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When I played the Peru Prologue with my family, we used some character sheets I had already developed for OTF. They worked great, but I’ve had a few ideas since then – some purely thematic and some more practical.

One idea was to make a fake passport for each PC – themed based on their nationality – and that when unfolded that passport would be the character sheet. That turned out to be fairly easy to accomplish, and I was pleased with the results.

My kids and I recently played Betrayal Legacy, and I noticed a couple of things. We have no problem writing stuff down at the end of scenarios or sessions, but we don’t like to spend time writing stuff down in the middle of a session – preferring to use cards or counters to quickly note changes to characters. In vanilla Fate, the main stuff that gets written on the character sheet during play are Stress and Consequences. In my implementation, other lasting aspects like Drives might also change frequently. That’s not a lot, but since some of those can get added, erased, or changed quite a bit during play, I figure it would be a good idea to at least look at alternatives.

Recently I came across the Kickstarter for Tainted Grail and found their character boards really cool. Then I started thinking about how I might be able to use something similar to reduce the written record keeping on the character sheet. What I’ve come up with is a board that the character sheet gets inserted into (or under).

Mockup of the Investigator Board with the Character Sheet beneath.

The character’s skills, aspects, ties to other characters, sanity, refresh, and stress boxes all show through the board. This allows the player to see everything they need to during play and even make changes to things that might only change once or twice per session, like sanity or ties. The player can place cubes into slots over stress boxes to mark them, and place cards displaying current consequences in different slots based on the value of the consequence. There’s a place for fate points, and the board indicates where to place cards for stunts and drives to the side of the board.

Styles of Fate

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The Authorship Spectrum

Before I get into what changes I’m making to Fate Core’s rules as written, I think it’s important to look at how I apply those rules to get the style of game I’m going for. The is because I have come to recognize that there are a lot of different styles of gameplay that emerge from Fate’s default rules. I think this is part of the reason that Fate has been so successful – it can accommodate very different game styles without requiring an actual alteration of the rules – you just have to apply the existing rules differently. However, this can also make exposing new players to the game a bit challenging.

There are lot of ways to describe and categorize tabletop roleplaying games, but one key idea that I have found that plays a role in how people approach Fate is the question of authorship. When it comes to authorship, you can think of all games as existing somewhere along a spectrum.

At one end of the spectrum, you have what I think of as the traditional or GM-led style of play, which is characterized by the GM having control over and knowledge of the game world that the players do not. Players only have information which their characters have, and they are only able to influence the game world through the actions of their characters. The GM controls all elements of the game world and possesses knowledge of the game world that is secret until the players uncover it through the actions of their characters. At the most extreme edge of this spectrum you also have GM railroading, where the players only control the moment-to-moment actions of their characters and have little to no say in where the party of PCs goes and what approaches they can take.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have what I tend to describe as a shared authorship style of play. This style is characterized by both the players and the GM being able to control elements of the game world on an equal footing and everyone having access to all information about the game world and the characters that reside within it. There are very few differences between the players and the GM in this style of game, and everyone has to actively distinguish between what they know about the game world and what their characters know.

Default Fate

I’d say that the default rules for Fate fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, though exactly where depends on how you interpret and apply some of the rules in Fate Core. This is most evident in how tables utilize the rules for Game Creation. Some groups start from scratch and create a new game world and setting, create characters and game aspects, create issues and some NPCs, and get straight to playing the game – using only the aspects they’ve created to drive play (more shared authorship). Other groups identify key aspects and issues and create characters during session zero, then take a break so the GM can prep everything else before the next session (more GM-led).

Games that make more use of secret or hidden aspects naturally tend more towards the GM-led end of the spectrum. There is also a lot of flexibility built-in to what players can do with the Create an Advantage action. While this action allows characters to change the circumstances around them to provide some sort of benefit, that still leaves some wiggle room. Some groups allow the CA action to alter those circumstances in ways that go beyond what the characters themselves can directly accomplish – for example, introducing a door to exit to a building or declaring that the ground ahead is a marsh in order to slow a fleeing enemy. This application of the CA action enables players to alter the game world beyond their characters – very shared authorship.

Using aspects and fate points to declare a story detail does not have a lot of defined limitations in the default rules, which provides a lot of potential for your players to influence the game world. Compels can be primarily viewed as a tool of the GM, with players occasionally compelling one another’s PCs if there is conflict within the party, but some groups also allow players to make broader use of compels – including compelling NPCs.

Terrible Fate Default

Since my goal is to play scenarios from Call of Cthulhu and other mythos games, my implementation of Fate will be focused on investigative horror gameplay. This means the game will tend more towards the GM-led end of the spectrum. The GM will have a great deal of information not initially available to the players, and the players will primarily interact with the game world through the actions of their characters. Players will be able to exercise limited narrative authority over the game world, but the limits of that authority will be narrowly defined. The GM will have broad authority over the world – and even some authority over the actions of PCs via compels and similar mechanics – while the players will determine where their PCs go and what they do when they get there. In other words, Our Terrible Fate will probably more closely resemble a traditional tabletop RPG than it will a freeform story game.

Why Fate? – Choosing a System – Part 4

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Why Fate?

Chances are that if you’re reading this (and especially if you’ve read any of my previous posts), you are probably asking at least one of three questions:

  • What’s Fate?
  • I don’t like Fate, why are you using it for a mythos game?
  • I like Fate, but why are you using it for a mythos game?

Again, my overall goal is to be able to use scenarios from existing mythos games like Call of Cthulhu and play with my family.  Understand that Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, and others are in many ways intended to tell stories like those portrayed in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and other mythos authors.  Unlike like many other traditional RPGs, Fate is specifically designed to simulate fiction – books, television, movies.  So if I focus on trying to tell the kinds of stories you see in that fiction – and the kinds of stories told playing these other games – then using Fate to tell stories in the Lovecraft mythos isn’t really all that strange of an idea.

If you’re familiar with Fate, chances are that you’ve read somewhere that it isn’t all the great a system for horror or investigation – which again raises questions about why I would use this system.  While the prevailing attitude towards using Fate for horror has long been that there are better options, there are enough great ideas out there about how to use Fate to run really good horror games that a whole book was released on the subject – The Fate Horror Toolkit.

Update:  It’s also worth noting that another relevant development has arrived on the scene since I wrote the initial draft of this post – it’s even a mythos game!  Fate of Cthulhu is currently on Kickstarter, and it’s coming from Evil Hat, the creators of Fate.  It’s not clear at this point precisely how much investigative horror will play into this game, since it’s billed as “Terminator-style action and adventure” meets the Mythos.  I’m fairly confident that this won’t check all the boxes for what I want to play, so I’m continuing with my efforts, but I’m definitely eager to see what they’ve come up with.  If nothing else it demonstrates clearly that Fate can handle gaming in the mythos, and I’m proud to be a backer of the Kickstarter.

It’s possible that Fate might not work that well for investigative gameplay, and that this ultimately won’t work.  I’m willing to try it any way.  At this point, I actually think that has more to do with how some players approach investigative games than any inherent misalignment between the genre and the system.  The more I explore some of the great ideas on the net about how to build and play investigative scenarios, the more I think that Fate should work just fine.

Narrative First

One idea that’s important to me playing with my family is that we are able to simply go with what makes sense in the story.  I don’t want to have to look up situation-specific rules, and I don’t want players making decisions based solely on stats.  I want to be able to ask what they want to do in the given situation, and be able to easily play out their actions.  I also want a system that rewards planning ahead and considering the consequences of your action, as that’s going to be an important concept in our games.

The Golden Rule of Fate is this:  Decide what you’re trying to accomplish first, then consult the rules to help you do it.  This is often paraphrased as “Fiction First” and has a few implications.  The first is that you should always start with what a character would do in a particular situation.  This should hardly be unusual in a roleplaying game, but in practice with a lot of other games, players get in the habit of taking action based on numbers and what their characters are most likely to succeed at – rather than on how their characters would typically react.  Another consequence of this rule (and its corollary – the Silver Rule) is that what makes logical sense take priority over other rules.  Needless to say this all lines up very well with my desire to focus on what makes logical sense in the story.

Player Choices

Somewhere along the line in the last few years of reading about designing and gamemastering RPGs, I recall reading that the best games involve challenging and interesting choices.  In fact, something I try to consciously assess when I’m considering options for how to apply or tailor a mechanic is to ask if the mechanic forces the player to make an interesting choice.

Fate Core is all about the players making choices.  Deciding whether to concede a conflict early and cut your losses or to press on to achieve your goal despite the toll it will take.  Deciding whether to take your chances on an even-odds roll or expend precious resources to increase your chances of a successful roll.  Spending points to avoid a problematic turn of events or welcoming a new complication in exchange for points you can use later.  All of these are common choices Fate players have to make numerous times in the course of play.

It’s often said that players in Fate can accomplish just about anything if they are willing to pay the price.  A major Fate player and contributor, Rob Hanz, phrased this as “How much do you want this, and what are you willing to give up to get it?” in his well-known collection of musing on Fate, titled the Book of Hanz.  Not only is that very much in line with what I’m going for, it can also make for some excellent stories of dangerous knowledge and tragedy as investigators try to avert disaster in the mythos.

PC Freedom, GM Toolbox

Many games offer a veritable laundry list of options for PCs – how to do X, how to do Y, how to do Z – just about anything a player can think of to try has a rule.  There’s just two problems with that:  First, that’s a lot of rules to remember or look up, so players rarely remember what they have at their disposal.  Second, if there’s not a rule for something, you’re often out of luck.  Fate has a small list of basic actions, but when coupled with the rest of the system they can be leveraged effectively to handle anything the players come up with.

On the other side of the table, the same actions give the GM a comparable array of options.  By default, Fate Core provides GMs with easy ways to present key issues within the game world, simple methods to both quickly generate simple mob-like NPCs and detail more central characters, and plenty of ways to model just about anything the players can imagine.  While Fate Core by default is very setting-agnostic, there are a myriad of mechanics in toolkits available from Evil Hat that provide ways to tailor the system for specific settings and themes.  Throw in more ideas shared by a vibrant community, including those in the Fate Codex e-zine, and there is a massive library of ideas and tools for the GM.

Powerful Flexibility

Part of the reason I believe Fate has been so successful is its flexibility.  The rules as written (often abbreviated as RAW) are powerful enough to handle whatever you throw at them, without being overly complex.  However, a lot of the text can be interpreted in a few different ways, depending on your context and what you’re aiming to get out of the game.  In some games, this openness to differences in interpretation and application could hobble use and acceptance of the system, but this has actually worked to Fate’s advantage.  New players can face some challenges getting comfortable with the system, but that’s usually due to preconceptions from previous RPG experience or issues of interpretation that can easily be addressed when going for a particular style of gameplay in a specific setting.

The other benefit of this flexibility is that there is almost always more than one way to handle any given narrative situation within the system.  This fact enables players and the GM to adopt the approach they find most appealing in light of their preferred play style.  It also makes it easier to stay consistent and keep the variety of different mechanics to a minimum.

Scale is also handled extremely well in Fate, so it can handle interactions between two competing galactic empires as easily as it can between two characters.  The core techniques and mechanics used to represent a character are the same as those used to represent an organization or a location, so you don’t have to learn a whole new approach to scenario prep or play just because characters are affecting things on a larger scale.  The GM can represent a nation-spanning fanatical cult as easily as a single NPC.

Descriptive Aspects

This might seem a bit odd at first, but one element of being a GM that I have long had issues with is describing locations and scenes, especially with investigative games.  I’ve never liked reading scene descriptions in published scenarios, partly because such descriptions usually only exist for certain scenes, and I’m not great at improvising detailed descriptions.  The biggest issue I’ve seen with this in investigative games is that on more than one occasion, I’ve seen players do one of two things:

  1. Completely miss a big hint that was in the description that should have helped point them in the right direction to move the story forward.
  2. Seize upon a mundane detail that was included only for fluff or color, convinced that it is the key to figuring out the mystery.

This plays a big part in how I’m handling clues in the game, but in a more general way I’ve also seen it impact other styles of games.  I don’t like the idea of a GM spending time creating colorful details (which can admittedly aid in immersion), only to have those details ultimately send the players down a rabbit hole and grind the game to a halt.  I also don’t like the idea of a game devoid of atmosphere, where the players feel like they can only make use of the specific details the GM spoon feeds them.

If there is one word that best defines how Fate differs from other system, it’s this: aspects.  At its simplest, an aspect is a short phrase that describes some element of the game world.  Aspects are used to describe important elements of characters, locations, items… everything.  They have mechanical effects on the game, and their importance is determined by how much they are used in play – in other words, it’s up to the players and the GM how much of an impact any particular aspect has on the story.

Aspects provide an advantage when it comes to describing scenes because the system explicitly allows you to make assumptions about a location because of its aspects.  So if a location has an aspect Archaeology Professor’s Artifact-Laden and Disheveled Office, everyone can assume that a lot of things are naturally present in the office – a desk, shelves, lots of books, maps, papers everywhere, journals and notebooks, and plenty of artifacts – and everyone has enough information to have a shared mental image of the scene.  It’s not necessary to detail everything in the office up front.  If it’s logical that something would be present, it is.  And the GM can still provide more detail in response to the PC’s actions.

Hackable

As a final point on why I’m going with Fate as a starting point, as a system it is eminently hackable.  By default, it’s flexibility naturally lends the game to be tailored to your table.  Leveraging the many options and ideas available only expands the ways you can customize the system.  Even more than that, the system has a lot of give to it.  While it is obviously important to understand how changes to one mechanic can affect other parts of the system, Fate is very forgiving.  You can make quite a few changes – even to the point of significantly altering how the game plays from one scene to another – without the system falling apart.

Wrapping Up

This has already taken far longer to finish and post than it should have, but I should mention that there is already a mythos Fate game on the market.  Modiphius released a Fate Core version of Achthung! Cthulhu, which is essentially a pulpy mashup of WWII and the mythos.  Rather than an investigative game involving ordinary people, as is common in mythos games, stories in Acthung! Cthulhu revolve around soldiers and spies in military operations during the war.  It is hyper-focused on that setting, so using it for other types of mythos games would require some adaptation.  It also does not include much in the way of rules – it is meant to be used in conjunction with the Fate Core rulebook.  There are a few rules provided to incorporate horror and mythos elements into the system – and I’m certainly going to look at using them where I can – but it doesn’t offer much in the way of using Fate for investigative gameplay or provide guidance for how to really play Fate in a way that aligns with a mythos theme and setting.

Game Features So Far

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As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, in the past couple of years I have played two Call of Cthulhu scenarios with my family. The first game, The Haunting, did not go as well as I wanted. The second game, the Peru Prologue to Masks of Nyarlathotep, went far better. I learned a lot from both sessions, and studying those experiences can point to what worked well and what didn’t – pointing to a preliminary list of features for my game.

I’ve also played a fair bit of both Mansions of Madness and Arkham Horror: The Card Game, not to mention numerous other board games. Again, examining what I liked and what I didn’t should help define some more features I may wish to incorporate.

Differences Between The Haunting and Peru

There are a few things I did differently when playing these two scenarios. While The Haunting didn’t go badly, my kids had a difficult time with it. We also didn’t really engage the system that much, and wading through the content of the prop handouts I used consumed a lot of time without a lot of benefit in terms of driving the investigation forward (great for immersion though).

System

When we played The Haunting, we used the Trail of Cthulhu conversion. There were very few dice rolls, and in general we didn’t engage the system except for during character creation. We didn’t quite reach Corbitt before we had to stop, which assuredly would have used the system due to combat. Not sure that would have gone well anyway, since we didn’t use the system much leading up to it.

For Peru, I used a work-in-progress version of the system I’m working now, which is a custom adaptation of Fate Core. There were a few parts of the system we didn’t engage with as much as we probably should have, but that was due more to some mistakes on my part as GM. I should have made the difficulty of rolls known to everyone, which I think would have helped drive the Fate Point economy. (I was leaning on my past experience of using unknown difficulties to help build suspense, but that wasn’t necessary.) I probably called for a couple of rolls I shouldn’t have, since I didn’t have any good ideas for complications from failure. And I should have called for a few more defense from horror rolls when the investigators encountered something strange or horrific.

Overall though, we definitely used the system a lot more in Peru, and it never felt like we had an excessive number of rolls. I had already put together a conversion doc that helped me quickly identify what skills would typically apply. However, even when the players wanted to take some action that wasn’t explicitly covered in the scenario, the Fate system made it easy to quickly identify a skill and mechanic to handle what they wanted to accomplish.

Character Creation

I think one of the differences that had the biggest impact for my group was how we got started with everyone’s characters. Our first time around we created characters from scratch using the ToC rules. This got the adults interested in their characters, but we spent a lot of time on this – and since we didn’t engage the system much, it was largely pointless. The choices of professions and such was interesting, but no one had a clue how the numbers for the skills would be relevant. We ended up spending around two hours on creating characters, whereas if we had spent less time on this we probably could have finished the scenario. More importantly, the kids were completely lost during this part. There were way too many choices for them to pick from, which turned them off from the beginning.

When we played Peru, I converted the pre-generated characters over to my Fate Core implementation and presented them to the players. So three people were choosing between about 8 characters. Since I was using a version of Fate, each investigator had a handful of aspects that provided a quick summary of the character, which made it easy for everyone to see how the investigators were different from one another and make a choice. After the investigation got started, I also had each player come up with a Drive for their investigator – basically a goal or concern they had related to the scenario or the other investigators. We didn’t have much opportunity to actually use those Drives in the scenario, but it allowed a bit of customization without requiring a lot of time.

I’ve though quite a bit about how best to handle creating characters in my game. I like the idea of starting with pre-generated characters for the first scenario or two and then allowing custom characters to be created. I also think providing the option to use pre-generated characters in later scenarios could useful – especially if you have additional players join the group. The option to customize pre-generated characters could also be useful. I want character creation to be quick and simple, but still allow for player choice and customization. When it comes to creating investigators from scratch, I’m also thinking of starting with a limited number of choices and then expanding them over time. This makes it easier to get familiar with the process without being overwhelmed and helps support character creation being quick.

I’ll probably deviate a fair bit from typical Fate Core character creation. The focus on the player characters in cosmic horror is very different from that of vanilla Fate Core, and the likelihood that investigators will die or go insane is usually fairly high in these types of games. I want the players to be invested in their characters, but not feel so attached to them that they are put off when they have to be replaced.

Character Creation Design Goals

  • Incorporate pre-generated characters
  • Allow pre-generated characters to be customized (Drives, Stunts, Ties)
  • Allow creation of new characters
  • Quick and simple character creation combined with player choice and customization
  • Limited initial character creation options that increase over time

Character creation is one of the areas where I have some developed, but a lot planned conceptually. I’ll create a separate post delving into this in more detail.

Clues

A central element to investigation-based gameplay is the discovery and interpretation of clues. One mythos game that really embraces this idea is Trail of Cthulhu, and it also touches on there being different types of clues. Building on this idea and adding a Fate twist, I handled clues a little differently with Peru than I did in The Haunting. This ended up working to great effect.

When we played The Haunting, I used lots of props, so there were plenty of documents that provided clues to the investigators. While these were great for immersion, they did little to overcome some of the common challenges with investigation games. Without going too much into it here, the players had difficulty parsing through the documents to separate the clues from the fluff, keeping track of the clues they had uncovered, and piecing together clues any sort of helpful way. When we ran Peru, which has far fewer physical documents, the players nevertheless had a far easier time keeping track of clues and figuring things out. They still had to find the clues and interpret them, so the core of this kind of gameplay remained intact without many of the usual challenges. (They even interpreted the clues incorrectly, but were still able to bring about a generally successful conclusion to the scenario.)

The first thing I did was to give clues a little more of a defined structure. Rather than a document or “the information Mr. Knott told you” being treated as a clue, each piece of relevant information obtained from those sources is a separate, discrete clue. So a document may contain several clues, each of which is written as a short, bite-sized, phrase or sentence. (Each Clue is also an Aspect, which has some other interesting advantages, but more on that elsewhere.)

I then created cards for each Clue, which were given to the players as the investigators uncovered them. I still gave the players documents and other props, which continued to provide immersion, and the players only received the Clue cards once they had read the documents. The Clue cards proved extremely helpful. The players could use them to keep track of and review what they learned and easily differentiate between actual clues and information that was just fluff/detail. I also categorized Clues as either Core (vital to the successful completion of the scenario) or Supporting (helpful or background info, but not indispensable), which is useful when determining how to handle investigator efforts to find those Clues.

Clue Features & Design Goals

  • Clues written as Aspects on Cards
  • Clue types – Core, Supporting, Floating
  • Use props whenever possible for documents, etc.
  • Clue and Encounter maps for the Keeper/GM
  • Some Clues lead to other scenarios (Fragments, Seeds, Hooks)

Locations

Mock up of Boston board used in The Haunting

One thing I had a lot of fun with when we ran The Haunting was a map of the locations in the scenario. I printed a large 20s-era map of Boston and put it on a bulletin board. I then printed out small collages of images for each place and pinned them to the board, with thin yard tacked between the place and its location on the map. As new locations cam up in play, I added them to the board. Gave everything a nice investigation/conspiracy feel and provided the players with some images to help visualize each location.

However, using this board did have a couple of issues. First, it was rather large. We had to either let it take up one whole side of the table or put it off to the side, which meant the players had to get it and walk to it if they wanted to look at the images or reference the map for any reason. It also meant that any time a new location was added, it took a minute to post it to the board and tie it to its location. Most importantly, using the board meant that putting everything away between sessions either took up a lot more space or a lot more time.

When we played Peru, I took a page from Arkham Horror: TCG and decided to use cards. In that game, each location is represented by a single card. Obviously, this doesn’t take much space, and it has the added benefit of allowing for any size location to be represented in the same way. I made a card for each location that contained its name, an image, and an aspect or two describing the location. I started out with only the starting location in play. As places came to the attention of the investigators during the scenario, I put the cards for those locations into play (assuming they knew enough of the location to actually get there).

In practice, this worked extremely well. The players were provided with an array of options of where to go, and as they gathered Clues and learned more they revealed new locations. Essentially, it provided a visual path to follow. They still had to decide where to go and what to do when they got there, but they always had some idea of where to go to look for more Clues.

I also created a sort of “board” for the Ruins in Peru. The idea was to echo the process of exploring a location in Mansions of Madness. I showed the players the map of the Ruins and they described what they were doing as they checked them out, but once they went underground, I laid out tiles representing the tunnels under the ruins. They started out with only a couple of tiles branching in two or three directions. As they explored I added more tiles (and also a few Aspects that described the environment). Combined with the creepy sound effects of the Peru module for Syrinscape that I was using, the players were definitely spooked and cautious. It worked fairly well, even with just basic white tiles with no art. The descriptions provided by the Aspects and the process of revealing the map only as they explored it, plus the atmospheric sound effect, was more than sufficient to set the mood and keep them on edge.

There were a few things that need to be refined too. I think providing the players with the map of the ruins worked okay, but I think using cards to represent each area of the ruins could have some benefits. The ruins on the surface were kind of an odd middle ground between the “Encounter” and “Investigation” levels of the game, so I need to look at that some more. When there wasn’t anything of consequence for a couple of tiles in the tunnels, the process of “Which way do you go? That way. Here are more tiles. Now where?” got a little tedious and pointless. Obviously, Mansions of Madness has a lot more structure defined with turns, actions, and such, so I’ll have to work on how to structure this Investigation level of play better. I hadn’t really delved into that yet for this first play through, so all in all it went well. And of course having art for the tiles would be a big improvement. I’m a little concerned that while converting scenarios to this system should be fairly simple for the most part, creating tiles for the Investigation of specific locations could be a challenge and big time sink.

Location Features & Design Goals

  • Support quick set up and tear down
  • Include image and descriptions/Aspects for each location
  • Use cards for locations at most levels of gameplay
  • Put location cards into play as players learn of them
  • Player pieces can be placed on cards to indication their location during Encounters
  • Investigation of locations transitions to tile-based board/map with player pieces
  • Additional tiles are added as players explore
  • Support additional locations not specified by the scenario, as players desire to visit other places

Non-Player Characters

In games like Call of Cthulhu, keeping track of all the non-player characters the investigators come across can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. This can be such a big issue in larger campaigns that Chaosium’s most recent edition of the epic Masks of Nyarlathotep includes 12 pages of NPC portraits that Keepers can present to players just to help them keep things straight. It’s always a good idea to provide information in more than one form (spoken, text, images, etc.) whenever practical, since different people have an easier time processing and recalling information in different ways.

There aren’t that many NPCs in The Haunting, and only one of them is all that memorable. Since we didn’t reach him during our play through, NPCs weren’t that big of a deal during that game. On the other hand, investigators in Peru will actually get most of their clues from NPCs. There is a lot of repeated interaction with different NPCs, and even one that uses an alias. Again, I used cards for each NPC, including the image from the scenario guide and a couple of descriptive Aspects. Worked really well for helping the players get a quick impression and keep track of everyone.

One thing I need to do differently is with the Aspects for each NPC. I included some information on the cards that the PCs wouldn’t reasonably be aware of at first. I need to focus on basic first impressions and allow for additional details to be added as they are uncovered. Additional details/Aspects could be physically written on the cards, put into play as separate cards, or an alternate version of the card could replace the original. I actually used the last approach for one of the named NPCs in Peru whose “true physical nature” is revealed partway through the scenario.

Character Features & Design Goals

  • Use cards for each named NPC or mob
  • Include name, image, and descriptions/Aspects for each character
  • Allow for additional details of NPCs to be revealed and put into play, beyond what’s on their card initially

Wrap Up

Obviously, there are plenty of other elements to the game – details on the investigators, character advancement, tying scenarios together, etc. – but these are the big ones that made a clear difference in our two games, so they are taking center stage to start out. As I mentioned, I already have more developed or planned for character creation and clues as well, which I’ll hopefully get around to posting in the near future.

One Among Many: Choosing a System – Part 3

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In Part 2 I looked at some of the big name mythos roleplaying games out there and briefly discussed a few reasons I’m not just playing them. Of course, those are not the only mythos RPGs available – it’s actually a very good time to be alive if you’re into mythos gaming. However, most smaller or indie roleplaying games these days tend to focus on minimal rules and/or a very shared authorship/narrativist style of game. That’s not what I’m after. It’s quite possible there’s a mythos RPG out there that’s actually fairly close to my personal preferences when it comes to system and setting, but I haven’t come across it. More importantly, I’m after something more than just a roleplaying game.

Why not just add components and a few custom rules to one of these games?

The next question that arises is why I don’t just add a few house rules and some play aids or props to one of these games. In actuality, I am going to end up just adapting an existing roleplaying system, but I’m envisioning something more than just playing a roleplaying game with a few house rules. Now, I do want to be able to play mythos scenarios using a typical roleplaying approach, but I don’t want that to be my only option. I want to be able to speed up or simplify play as necessary, and I want to be able to slow things down and delve into the details when it suits my purpose. And I want to make those adjustments on the fly, as things develop at the table. I also want to incorporate other gameplay elements that might seem downright foreign to a traditional RPG but nevertheless can bring something to the experience.

Over the years I have learned that when it comes to any situation or event in a tabletop game, there are always a variety of ways you can handle that event mechanically. Each approach brings with it a set of advantages and disadvantages when it comes to simplicity, detail, ease, time, etc. It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and what’s going to work best at your table. Now there are certainly systems out there that provide a wealth of options for dealing with any situation that may arise in play, but many of them do so by having an increasingly large assortment of rules that are intended to encompass different circumstances. Especially when it comes to playing with my family, I prefer a system that can be used to support a wide variety of in-game events and actions without having to resort to dozens of individual situation-specific rules – a system whose basic mechanics can be applied flexibly and powerfully enough to provide a fine level of detail without being cumbersome.

After working on my previous project I believe I came across such a system in Fate Core.

What? Not that system!

While my overriding goal is to play this game with my family, I have a natural tendency to write and develop for a wider audience. In other words, I’d love to be able to share what I come up with with others. One of my biggest concerns with all of this so far is the possible reaction to my using Fate Core. So let me say this: This will not be Fate Core as you know it!

Actually, I’m not sure whether to expect a stronger reaction from people that are opposed to all Fate systems or from members of the Fate community. One group may just declare “It’s got Fate in it. I’m not going anywhere near it!” and the other may jump to “That’s not Fate! You’re doing it wrong!” Oh well. I’ve got my reasons – and they’re coming in Part 4.

One Among Many: Choosing a System – Part 2

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Choosing a System – Part 2

This series of posts discusses some of the existing games set in the Cthulhu Mythos that are currently popular and why I’m not just playing one of these games.

In Part 1, I looked at two major board/card games, Mansions of Madness and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Both of these games place a large emphasis on meta gaming over making story- or character-based decisions. Both also suffer from a lack of player options due to the lack of a GM. There’s a lot to learn from these games, but they just don’t offer the gameplay I’m looking for.

So now let’s look at those mythos games that have a GM and place a higher priority on story- and character-driven decision-making: Roleplaying games. In other words…

Why not just play an existing roleplaying game?

To some extent, what I ultimately want to do is play a roleplaying game like Call of Cthulhu, but some changes are necessary to be able to play with my family in a way we’ll all enjoy. And I think some of these changes can actually provide a novel way of dealing with some of the challenges that frequently come up in investigative roleplaying games.

First, I should provide a little background. While I’ve played a few different RPGs over the past 20+ years, I’ve also studied a great many more to varying degrees while I worked on my last project. Most recently, the two systems I have focused on most over the past few years are Burning Wheel and Fate Core. I’ll talk more about these two systems and how they factor into my plans later, but for now I’m going to focus on three of the most popular Cthulhu Mythos roleplaying games currently on the market.

CoC 7th Ed (Image taken from the Chaosium website)

Let’s start with the granddaddy of mythos gaming: Call of Cthulhu (CoC).

Thousands of players have shared stories of great/horrific times they’ve had playing this game. A big part of my goal is to be able to have similar experiences with my family and make use of the decades of content available for this game. CoC essentially created the standards by which most mythos games are judged. The integration of sanity and madness into RPGs largely started with this game, and it will be a big inspiration for me moving forward. I backed the 7th Edition Kickstarter and would be happy to own just about anything released for this game. That said, there are a few things about the system that I’m just not a fan of.

First of all, at its core CoC really just uses a standard, traditional RPG system (Basic Roleplaying, BRP). The elements of the system that actually reinforce mythos or investigation themes are just bolted on. Sanity has been continuously refined over the years and is fairly well developed at this point, but there is very little to this system that actually relates to investigative gameplay. In fact, about the only element of the system that specifically relates to investigating some sort of mystery is the Idea roll. And to be honest, I hate the Idea roll.

On its face, the Idea roll is a fairly good… idea. It was created to solve a problem that can come up in lots of RPGs and can be especially prevalent in investigative games: For whatever reason, the players can’t figure out what to do next to advance the story. So they roll some dice to get a hint from the GM (or Keeper, if you prefer). It’s really not a bad solution, but it’s just not a solution I like. To me, it feels like a band-aid slapped on a hole – one that shouldn’t exist or at least should be subjected to better treatment.

So this is one reason I don’t want to play CoC as written: The one element of the system that is really tied to an investigative game is a mechanic I don’t personally like. The other big reasons are also ultimately an issue of personal preference: I don’t like the dice or the basic mechanics.

As I have played and studied games over the years, I have learned a few things about what I like and what I don’t. I don’t like systems that use lots of different size of dice (d4, d6, d10, etc.). I don’t like percentile dice. I don’t like roll-under systems. I’m not really sure why, as rationally I see some value in a percentile mechanic being easy to explain, but I’m just not a fan of these types of systems.

I’m also actively trying to minimize the recordkeeping and math the players have to deal with. This is partly because I know many players – and especially my kids – don’t want to deal with this. It’s also because I have a tendency to put together things that others feel are too complex, so I’m continuously trying to guard against that. I’m honestly not too sure how successful I’ll be on that front, but one look at a CoC character sheet with fractional values is a turn off.

Another thing that initially concerned me about CoC was the setting – specifically the time period. While there is a wealth of content out there covering decades, even centuries, the bulk of CoC is centered in the 1920s. As I have written elsewhere, the big reason I stopped working on my last project was that the setting was so foreign that my family – especially my kids – would have a hard time playing in it. When I decided to pivot to a mythos game, I decided to stick with a modern setting so my kids would be able to easily find their footing. However, having already run a test game set in the 20s (the Peru Prologue for Masks of Nyarlathotep), I’m thinking that this won’t be much of an issue. The setting is still familiar, and the other elements I’m introducing to the gameplay help ensure the players don’t ever feel lost.

ToC (Image taken from the Pelgrane website)

Next up is a game that retooled the basic CoC concepts and integrated them into a system specifically designed for investigative roleplaying: Trail of Cthulhu (ToC).

In my view, there are three major advantages of ToC when compared to CoC. First, clues and investigation are built into the system from the ground up. Second, sanity and horror are further refined to better portray the nuances that exist in mythos fiction. Third, the game offers adjustments to players and GMs depending on whether they want to play a more action-driven, pulpy game or a more classic, purist game.

Bottom line: There is a lot to learn from ToC’s approach, and I expect to lean heavily on it. However, there is one major element of it that I just don’t like. The system resolves the problem of “what if the players roll badly and don’t find the clue?” by making discovering clues nearly automatic. As long as the character is in the right place and is using the right skill, the clue will be found. It builds on this by also incorporating a spend mechanic that allows a player to spend points to uncover additional clues or information. This is where the game loses me.

There are two reasons for this. First, it smacks of encouraging a meta approach to the game. It becomes less about what the character would do in that situation and more about how many points you have available. I’ve seen players complain that the game just becomes an exercise in traveling to a location and reciting a list of skills. That’s something a GM should be able to overcome, but the fact that the system can effectively encourage this line of thought is a problem. Second, this approach robs the GM and players of an opportunity created by failed rolls. One longstanding challenge of many, more traditional RPG systems is what happens when the characters need something to advance the story but fail the roll that was to provide them with it. This automatic-success, point-spend system resolves that issue, but there is a way I find far more interesting.

As seen in games like Burning Wheel and Fate, a failed roll could mean that the character does not get what he was after – but it can also mean the character gets what he wanted with some sort of additional complication or twist. Not only does this ensure the story always advances in some way, it also creates great opportunities to take the story in a new direction. For me, there’s just too much potential to ignore. So I know that many players have had success with ToC’s mechanics, but they’re not for me.

Delta Green (Image taken from the Delta Green website)

When I decided to start working on a mythos game set in the modern day, I naturally took a hard look at another major mythos roleplaying game: Delta Green (DG).

Of course, DG also uses a percentile system, so that was an immediate issue for me. One element the system really has going for it is the integration of investigators’ ties to the outside world – their family, friends, and colleagues. This is one of the most commonly cited parts of the system that make it stand out, and an idea I may end up borrowing from.

Ultimately, a major reason I decided to not just play DG was the setting. To me, it feels like a pulp version of the Cthulhu Mythos (or maybe the first Hellboy movie) married to the X-Files. Now don’t get me wrong, that sounds awesome and is something I’d like to play. I could probably get my wife excited about a game like that. I may end up exploring this setting further, but for my immediate goals it just places too much emphasis on the government conspiracy angle. A common element to cosmic horror investigative roleplaying is that the player characters are everyday people. That’s an element I want to keep, at least as a starting point, so a game that starts from the assumption that the characters are government agents isn’t quite what I’m looking for.

Wrapping Up

So that covers some of the reasons why I’m not just going to play one of these RPGs, but there are other reasons too – reasons not tied to the specific system used by a particular game, but that are generally common to roleplaying games across the board. I’ll explore those more in the next post, which will hopefully shed more light on why what I’m envisioning is a little different.