Call of Cthulhu - The Haunting. [quote=@Call of Cthulhu Core Rulebook] More people have played this Call of Cthulhu scenario than any other. Under the title "The Haunted House" it has been included with the game since the beginning. For many it was their first Cthulhu adventure. Most people familiar with the game remember being baffled by it. Its title has changed to avoid confusion with another scenario in another book, and to encourage long-time keepers to give it a fresh look. "The Haunting" is recommended for beginning investigators. [/quote] Hello! I welcome you to play Call of Cthulhu - The Haunting with myself as the Keeper. What is Call of Cthulhu? Well I believe the quoting the rulebook once again will save me the trouble. [quote=@Call of Cthulhu Core Rulebook] Horror. Terror. Fear is at the core of our existence. Horror stories are a catharsis for the dread we hold in our souls on a day-to-day level. Call of Cthulhu is a game that lets you explore that fear, bringing monsters and terrors out into the daylight, and fighting against them for the sake of soul and sanity. If you've played other roleplaying games(RPGs) before, then you have an idea of how it works: A group of players sit around a table and describe the actions of their characters, while one player (the game master, or "keeper" as he is known in Call of Cthulhu) guides the story along. It is like an interactive novel where one person tells the story, and the players take part in the story. However, Call of Cthulhu is different from most other RPGs. In Call of Cthulhu, the players portray ordinary people cast into extraordinary circumstances. You have no magic weapons with which to assault the dark things of the world. You cannot count on the local king sending armies of minions to your aid. You simply have your wits, your courage and your skill to fight the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. In its simplest form, Call of Cthulhu is a game about heroes. The heroes who realize that the world is crawling with alien terrors bent on the destruction of humanity, and who take that fight back to the abyss itself.The simplest metaphor for a game of Call of Cthulhu can be likened to the fairy tale of the Little Dutch Boy. The dam had a crack and the Little Dutch Boy had to stand there with his finger in the hole to keep the water from flooding out and destroying the nearby town. However, instead of how the original tale played out, imagine that on the other side of that dam is a bloodthirsty shark, which is gnawing away at the Dutch Boy. He loses one finger, so he must put another one in. Then he loses another finger, and another. The hole is getting bigger, and he must stick his entire arm in, and the shark keeps biting. But if he fails, if he leaves his post, the dam will collapse, and many lives will be lost. And so he stays, resolute in his convictions. He may die, but humanity will live because of him. [/quote] So a RPG where you play an average Joe set up against cosmic horrors that accidentally glancing at them can make you permanently insane! The Setting for this adventure is 1920's Boston. The story revolves around researching a mysterious, apparently haunted, house that a landlord has just recently bought, he hires the player characters to go investigate for him. The game will be very free form but will involve dice rolls at some moments. The way the stats work in call of Cthulhu is the percentile system, Skills are rated from 0%-100% A D100 is rolled when a skill is needed and the aim is to get [i]under[/i] the Percentage on the skill. For example- John removes his handgun from its holster and fires at the bartender. John's Pistol Skill is 45% and so he rolls a D100 and has to get 45 or under to pass the roll. If he fails he misses if he passes he hits and will roll damage for his weapon, unless the target attempts to dodge, where the opponent would roll on there dodge skill. Some people seemed interested and so here it is. I will begin talking below of the tedious process of Character Creation. The Character sheet comes in a few sections. [hider=Personal] [u]Personal [/u] Name: Occupation: (Its the 1920's, I will allow most occupations as long as they are not "Cthulhu Hunter" or anything that doesn't exist) Nationality: Birthplace: Mental Disorders:(Not to extreme at the start, best to not have any, you may gain these depending on how much sanity you lose in game) Bio: (Doesn't need to be long, but should explain a little about who they are, what there hobbies are and how they have some interest in the super natural.) Inventory: Home Inventory: Inventory is things that you carry on your person, at the start I will allow things that your character would generally carry around.(You also start with $5) Home Inventory is important items that are at your place of residents. Do not list everything, just anything important. For instance if your character is a farmer, he may have a shotgun or rifle that he keeps at home. Things that don't need to be listed are common objects, a journal, paper, cutlery. The reason for this is so that when I reveal something like "Its weakness is silver" the player can not turn around and say "Oh, I have a set of silver daggers at my characters house." [/hider] [hider=Characteristics] [u]Characteristics[/u] These six stats are rolled up using 3d6 each. STR-(The Strength of the character) CON-(The Characters health, vigour and vitality POW-(The Characters force of will and mental power) DEX-(How quick and nimble a character is) APP-(How attractive a character is) These two stats are rolled up using 2d6+6 SIZ-(The size of the character, this does not necessarily mean how tall, but how much space they take up due to fat, muscle or height.) INT-(How intelligent a character is) Education is rolled up as 3d6+3 EDU-(How much Education the character has had, University, college, high school etc..) These stats are determined by other stats. LUCK- (How lucky a character is, determined by POW multiplied by 5) IDEA- (A character with a high IDEA roll may find out things from thin air, determined by INT multiplied by 5) KNOW-(A character with a high KNOW roll may be able to rack there brain about a past teaching, determined by EDU multiplied by 5 The last of the characteristics are SAN and HP [hider=SAN HELP] Sanity This is what the game is all about, losing sanity happens when something horrifying happens in front of a character. A sanity check is needed in these situations where the player must roll under their characters [u]current[/u] sanity (Not starting). The best way to display SANITY is with max sanity next to current sanity.(Like this SAN-50/32) If you lose all of you SAN you go completely Insane. [/hider] SAN-(is determined by POW multiplied by 5 (Same as LUCK stat) [hider=HP HELP] HP is the characters life, lose to many in one go and you may pass out, lose all and you die. It is best to keep your max life next to your current life, just like san ( HP- 12/8) [/hider] HP- (is determined by CON+SIZ then divided by two rounded up.) [/hider] [hider=Character Skills] Character Skills [hider=Character Skills help] Once the base characteristics have been done, the next step is to calculate how many points you get into putting into your skills. For each stat there is a base value, this is if you don't put anything into the stat what you would have to roll under (Eg: First aid is base value 30% without putting any points into it) Points are used to increase stats from there base value to higher values, showing that a character has experience in that field. For instance, Dr Willow knows more than the average person in first aid, so he uses some of his points to boost the First Aid skill. The first aid skill is base 30% but Dr Willow puts 20 points into it to make it 50% For balancing purposes, a skill can not be over 75% There are two types of points, Occupational and Personal Occupational Points can only be used in skills that relate to the occupation of the character (Private investigator may have Fast talk but wouldn't have Geology) The amount of occupational points a character has is their EDU multiplied by 20 Personal Points can be what the character does as a hobby, these points can be spent on skills that otherwise wouldn't be allowed. For instance a Private investigator can not use occupational points in Geology [i]but[/i] if in his back story the play had mentioned he enjoys collecting rocks when he isn't at work, then Personal points can be used in this manner. The amount of Personal points a character has is their INT multiplied by 10 [/hider] Base Values- Accounting-10 Anthropology-1 Archaeology-1 Art-(Specify)-5 Astronomy-1 Bargain-5 Biology-1 Chemistry-1 Climb-40 Conceal-15 Credit Rating-15 Dodge-DEX multiplied by 2 Drive Auto-20 Electrical repair-10 Fast Talk-5 First Aid-30 Geology-1 Hide-10 History-20 Jump-25 Law-5 Library Use-25 Listen-25 Locksmith-1 Martial Arts-1 Mechanical Repair-20 Medicine-5 Natural History-10 Navigate-10 Occult-5 Operate Heavy Machine-1 Other Language(Specify)-1 Own Language(Specify)-EDU multiplied by 5 Persuade-15 Pharmacy-1 Photography-10 Physics-1 Pilot(Specify)-1 Psychoanalysis-1 Psychology-5 Ride-5 Sneak-10 Spot Hidden-25 Swim-25 Throw-25 Track(Specify)-10 Axe-20 Blackjack-40 Club-25 Knife-25 Sabre-15 Sword-20 Handgun-20 Machinegun-15 Rifle-25 Shotgun-30 Submachine Gun-15 Fist/Punch-50 Head Butt-10 Kick-25 Grapple-25 [/hider] [hider=Clean Sheet for ease of use] [u]Personal[/u] Name: Occupation: Nationality: Birthplace: Mental Disorders: Bio: Inventory: Home Inventory: [u]Characteristics[/u] STR- CON- POW- DEX- APP- SIZ- INT- EDU- LUCK IDEA KNOW SAN HP [u]Character Skills[/u] Accounting-10 Anthropology-1 Archaeology-1 Art-(Specify)-5 Astronomy-1 Bargain-5 Biology-1 Chemistry-1 Climb-40 Conceal-15 Credit Rating-15 Dodge-DEX multiplied by 2 Drive Auto-20 Electrical repair-10 Fast Talk-5 First Aid-30 Geology-1 Hide-10 History-20 Jump-25 Law-5 Library Use-25 Listen-25 Locksmith-1 Martial Arts-1 Mechanical Repair-20 Medicine-5 Natural History-10 Navigate-10 Occult-5 Operate Heavy Machine-1 Other Language(Specify)-1 Own Language(Specify)-EDU multiplied by 5 Persuade-15 Pharmacy-1 Photography-10 Physics-1 Pilot(Specify)-1 Psychoanalysis-1 Psychology-5 Ride-5 Sneak-10 Spot Hidden-25 Swim-25 Throw-25 Track(Specify)-10 Axe-20 Blackjack-40 Club-25 Knife-25 Sabre-15 Sword-20 Handgun-20 Machinegun-15 Rifle-25 Shotgun-30 Submachine Gun-15 Fist/Punch-50 Head Butt-10 Kick-25 Grapple-25 [/hider]