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2019-11-10, 07:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
I was thinking of running a sword & sorcery adventure game set in some low-tech, post-apocalyptic future version of Mythos Earth. Primitive civilizations, the worshipped pantheon being the Lovecraft Old Ones, magic being Call of Cthulhu rituals. Did anyone try this, and more specifically, did the system work at all for this purpose? Is there a caster vs martial disparity in this case?
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2019-11-10, 09:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Yes. Martials die, casters die from theit own summoned creatures
In all seriousness, it could work if you combined it with either Runequest or Magic World, both designed for S&S (Magic World likely being better, almost everybody uses magic in Runequest), or maybe using the BRP corebook. But I think it might be better to take Magic World and slot in advanced technology or Mythos elements from Call of Cthulhu, although you'd have to essentially throw out the MW magic system.
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2019-11-10, 10:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Thank you! If possible I would rather just modify CoC somehow than to integrate another system. I was thinking of somehow having rules where "heroic" player characters were boosted somehow, but I am not sure where the need is greatest. Latest version lets you parry as many attacks as you can make without penalty, and seems to key very much off of your fighting skill + your armor, in case of martial characters. Could I somehow boost that? Those who have "heroic" blessing get bonus dice in combat, or bonuses to dodge/fight/parry?
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2019-11-10, 11:25 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2012
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- UK
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
BRP is the system that underlies Call of Cthulhu, Magic World is one of the fantasy magic options presented for it.
About the only realy difference in the base system between CoC and BRP is that BRP goes into more detail on weaponed combat (this is regarding all the sanity rules as an add-on not part of the base system).
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2019-11-10, 12:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Thank you. In that case, what does base BRP/MW do with regards to combat that allows more "heroic" fantasy gaming? Or is it similar in balance to CoC?
(I suppose it is rather similar also to the borderline-playable Swedish BRP game I grew up with, come to think of it. No real levelling or character power increases, no durability increases, no multiple attacks.)
Maybe the latter actually? Some way to give martial characters multiple attacks/parries per round so they can shine keeping hordes of minions away, Conan-style?
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2019-11-10, 02:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2005
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
The CoC Dreamlands supplement should work well for it.
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2019-11-10, 05:47 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2012
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- UK
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Actually, for me becoming more heroic has always been the probelm with RuneQuest (which is rather further from base BRP than CoC, but still the same engine), the new version of RQ (RQG) begins to address some of this (you can now make more than one parry per round while attacking without needing stupidly high skills) but looks to me to keep this problem!
Iirc multiple attacks come from skills over 100% - you divide your skill between the attacks and so long as every attack is made at over 50% you can make multiple attacks; but yes, one of the the main features of BRP combat is outnumbering your opponentas gives a huge advantage.
So, to really make super-heroes in a fantasy world you need to really power up the characters - give them non-standard abilities (perhaps those from the super-heroes part of BRP?). That, or when faced by a horde of low-skill opponenets find a doorway so they can only attack one at a time!
In RQ, power really comes from getting powerful magics. I think it is the same in BRP.Last edited by Khedrac; 2019-11-10 at 06:06 PM.
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2019-11-11, 06:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Latest CoC has this bonus/penalty dice system where you roll twice and take the highest/lowest, which also goes into the multiple parry/attack mechanic. I was considering maybe having exceptional persons (e.g. player characters) being blessed by specific entities - fated warriors have an extra bonus dice on their Fighting skill, fated thieves on some sneaky skill, whereas magic users can start game with Chtulhu Mythos skill and some small number of rituals. It might be overpowered also but I think it would scale with your skill, and would in principle translate to another free parry/counterattack?
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2019-11-11, 07:23 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
BRP isn't that good at 'heroic' anyway, it was designed for CoC and as such is based around relatively normal people. A key thing with all the BRP systems is that power comes from powerful magic, and that powerful magic isn't that easy to get.
On that note I personally prefer Magic World over Runequest because it's magic is more powerful but harder to get (most beginning characters in RQ get some magic, only 5% of MW characters qualify at character creation).
But yeah, a rough hack would be doubling Hit Points for PCs and giving them Fate Points per session equal to 1/2 POW or 1/4 POW to allow them to reroll or flipflop rolls. Although the new version of CoC has moved to percentile stats for some reason. But if you remove the danger of BRP combat, then why play BRP?
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2019-11-11, 06:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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2019-11-12, 03:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2017
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Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
You could try and dig up a copy of the rules for Stormbringer 5th ed. It's a BRP system as well - you will immediately recognize everything if you know CoC - but tweaked to fit Michael Moorcock's Elric stories. It's relatively easy for a character to begin with at least one fighting skill at 100+ percent which enables multiple attacks, more or less guaranteed parries, and criticial hits. Less skilled opponents, i.e. most base soldiers/mercenaries/thugs will be in serious trouble fighting such a character. Magic is present but not required or ubiquitous and has a separate summoning system for summoning and binding elementals, demons, etc. Pretty much classic sword and sorcery magic.
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2019-11-13, 02:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2008
Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
Assumption: Sword and Sorcery meaning Conan style...wizards/magic/demons are few and far between and rarely, if ever, on the side of "good".
While I agree with Rax that Stormbringer/Elric is a great fit for sword and sorcery, CoC could work really well for a post-apocalyptic version (particularly if the apocalypse was mythos-induced!) with one big hiccup...survival. Fights in CoC (and SB/E but to a lesser extent) are far more dangerous than D&D. The damage to max hitpoints ratio is much higher, the availability of healing magic much much much lower, and recovery takes quite a while. Factor that in to any determination of system.
I think CoC does have an advantage if you're going to have relics of the previous age that might still function (guns, electricity, sciencey stuff) because it is pre-built to handle those elements, while also having the established materials for mythos lore and magic. I'd certainly harden the characters quite a bit when it comes to sanity since they've already lived through plenty of horror in a PA world (unlike the dandies of the 1920s with their soft civilization and lost belief in magic) and give some consideration to revising how the attribute scores are developed.
I'd totally play a mashed CoC/Conan/Gamma World game all day long!
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2019-11-16, 11:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2018
Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
You could try Mythras, which was RuneQuest 6 before it was renamed and reverted to Chaosium. There is a free quickstart called "Mythras Imperative" available which gives you the core system. Mythras has 5 different magic systems you can opt to use (only Folk Magic is detailed in the quickstart), which goes from the cantrip-like Folk Magic, to Theism for god-miracles, Animism (spirits and shamans), sorcery (more traditional wizardry), Mysticism (wushu/jedi powers). It's a bit more complex than CoC but designed for sword & sorcery settings.
Another route to take is simply run Cthulhu Dark Ages, it's based on a older edition of CoC (pre 7th), but the setting is approx 1000 AD, Europe with the PCs drawn from likely occupations of the time.Last edited by Bilharzia; 2019-11-16 at 11:11 PM.
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2019-11-18, 06:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
Re: Anyone tried Call of Cthulhu for a sword & sorcery game?
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