What I love about CoC is you can snuffed out in split second. Investigators must be careful on every approach. You found a copy of the necronomicon? The temptation of power can cause a loss of sanity and power has a price. When I run CoC games I love to separate the investigators and make them feel vulnerable. I also avoid using descriptions like tentacles. Ty LBN for the video!! 🧛♂️
@nasir6r996
Ай бұрын
1d4 investigators per round. Iykyk
@mmmproductions1247
Ай бұрын
Every problem can be solved at the core by bonking something, but each problem requires a different level and often the problem bonks back.
@nasir6r996
Ай бұрын
Cannibalizing concepts from other systems is actually a very good way to increase your GM tools. I like CoC but admittedly I get a little arsed with the percentages (kind of dyscalculic). I'm actually surprised you like the old stats for broken-ass Elders. You and I feel the same way: physically taking on an Elder when you're a young kindred= you being dead or dominated (or Dominated). I was very happy when some of my players, you were usually hack and slash types, were able to outsmart the prince and have leverage over them via being in possession of a very specific plot maguffin. They knew the Prince in question could just roll up and take it, dispatching them in the process but that wasn't the point. They called the the Prince's bluff, convinced them they'd hidden it while the whole time, gathering evidence that the Prince was losing their grip, which politically isolated said Prince near the climax. It ended in a chase through the city where said Prince, mad and obsessively clinging to aforementioned maguffin, breached the Masquerade a handful of times, immediately ending their praxis and ensuring that every Kindred in the city would be gunning for them in an impromptu Blood Hunt. And said maguffin? Yeah. Was fake. The real maguffin ended up in the hands of the archons. Iirc, as this was 15 years ago, it was something inspired by the Eye of Hazimal. A jewel that could grant terrible power if it was activated. And this all came about because my players understood that this Prince couldn't be physically fought without a ton of backup and even more luck. So they got crafty, they got patient and they cultivated intel. They didn't even have to physically engage the Prince. Others did that for them. I was stupidly proud of my players. They were a tad disappointed that the climax wasn't fisticuffs (lol DnD mentality) but they enjoyed it all the same. All hail Yog Sothoth! He who is both Gate and Key!
@Crushanator1
Ай бұрын
i think some of this is just down to the mechanics of the game, if a game like D&D is 99% rules for combat then its expected there will be combat, and presumably the rules and the experience of combat will be good. But it can also be the sort of memetic virus of D&D outselling literally every other RPG combined. Its fine if VTM is about getting new players and young vampires, and in a way it always was, but it definitely feels like the push towards Anarch vampires as a default (or at least equal) lends credence to the sort of shit kicking Brujah and Gangrel solving all their problems with violence. Even the Ventrue and Toreador in this context become superheroic in their own right, and the sort of have to when the expectation of play is more around beating people up for turf. I sort of wish there was agood Blades in the Dark remix of Vampire, if only because it means the introspective and interpersonal stuff can mechanically and thematically take center stage over "here's more combination disciplines to do violence with"
@NinjaDeviant
Ай бұрын
I've had a few encounters over many years of running world of darkness games that had players frustrated thinking that they couldn't do anything. When the antagonist or just the being living in that area is an ancient or elder that was put in by another ST to explain parts of the world or a nepo-baby. But it was always surprising to see them (almost) never attempt to retreat. It required death
@archibaldzidlicka8960
Ай бұрын
I think there is an important thing worth pointing out. In games like DnD/Pathfinder the encounters need to be "balanced" because there usually are only two outcomes. You win or you die. Thats where the inspiration from war games comes from. Now I personally dont like this kind of thing and prefere more narrative games but I have also encountered many times when the unbalanced side of things just kinda beats the fun out of games. I understand that this sort of thing can work with games like call of cthulu but if I implement this in a dungeoncrawler where players dont know whats gonna be in there, they find a beholder and that thing kills them in 3 turns because you cant outtalk it, outrun it or outfight it... its gonna make for a rather dull experience.
@dddfeardi
Ай бұрын
The funny thing is a proper dungeon crawl actually can have lots of unbalanced encounters because a properly-constructed dungeon is not a linear sequence of rooms. They're a lot more sandboxy, with secret passages to bypass encounters, hidden treasures to combat the denizens, and lots of puzzles as alternatives to combat. Many even had multiple factions you could pit against each other then walk past in the confusion. Scouting, setting traps/ambushes, hit-and-run attacks, attrition tactics, and generally not fighting straight-up were core expectations of play by the designers. The style of tightly-scripted linear sequences of encounters building to a predetermined climax is somewhat recent, really kicking off with the release of Dragonlance in '85 (so not all that recent; we've actually had it for far longer than we didn't) and its "Play the novels" format. Dragonlance had a ton of problems making that work, but it was so wildly popular it rewrote the DNA of adventure and campaign design anyway. That kind of "interactive novel" experience that is 100% of D&D/PF/etc. adventures today really demands balanced encounters more than a dungeon crawl because there is no plan B, no secret passage through the story the players can take if a fight is too hard. The fights are narrative beats that build to the climax and give the players vital information they need to make sense of the plot and progress. If they don't win the fight, the DM _must_ slap together some alternative source for the information and emotion to get the plot back on track. And none of it is going to be as satisfying because combat is really how players show their stuff in D&D-alikes. They really don't have much going on outside combat besides playing "Mother May I?" with the DM.
@mitchistophelesr6756
Ай бұрын
this is great for Hunter games, encourage players to investigate and research what cryptid or horror they are hunting and go in prepared, otherwise not everyone is going to make it home. I like the horror creation rules in Hunter the Vigil second edition and even those in the Chronicles core book.
@clairestark9024
Ай бұрын
Coc's simplicity is matched only by its elegance it says a lot that its barely changed over decades. Cthulhu invictus is a lot of fun as is the malleus monstrum. When i run coc i'll often deliberatly using 'famous' entities to make experianced players unsure of the rules. I also often make a point of implied horror such as npcs going missing or a room with light but no light source.
@WolfOfLegend
Ай бұрын
Its insane to me that I've heard people genuinely complain that "5th Edition is severely downplaying the comic book fantasy element for the street level", and also apparently now that V5 PCs feel too powerful? I just don't get it. For the record I agree with having powerful NPCs and unbalanced encounters, especially if it makes the players have to use alternate methods than just head-on fighting to get one over on their enemies. I just find it strange that people hate on V5 for directly opposing reasons
@dddfeardi
Ай бұрын
Not balancing encounters is more useful advice for a game designer than a GM. The reason not balancing encounters works in Call of Cthulhu (and its relatives VtM, RuneQuest, Pendragon, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Dark Heresy, etc.) is because there are a lot more systems surrounding combat such that combat is the least desirable option -- the last resort when you have burned every other bridge out of the situation. Such games put a lot more emphasis on being part of society, where the players have responsibilities and expectations of behavior, and thus the players have a lot more resources to approach problems without direct violence, which means the GM has a lot more avenues to challenge them. Building out those kinds of systems as part of your game's design creates balance on a more holistic level, where it doesn't matter if the combat is finely tuned because the PCs can just leave and try something else. The problem with applying this to D&D and its relatives is D&D is a combat game first. Most of its rules are about the intricacies of combat and _every_ character is mechanically differentiated by what they do in a fight before all other considerations. Most of the things that make your character play differently are a Fighter's multiattack or a wizard's mastery of elemental damage. No classes get features for, say, helping the local village build stronger magical defenses so they can defend themselves against bandits in lieu of murdering the bandits yourselves. So the game naturally nudges players and the DM back towards combat encounters because that's where the players can show off all the cool stuff they got on their last level up. These are the legacy of the earliest versions of the game, where you were fighting monsters and robbing graves. There was no consideration made into how PCs related to society because they never did; they were always out in the wilderness, only returning to town to sell loot. Think about how many spells Priests have for dealing with hunger and thirst and consequently how many "Why do famines exist in any D&D world?" threads have been written over the last 50 years and how that is always ignored in the books. None of these classes were really meant to interact with the game world beyond breaking into locked rooms. Combat in D&D _is_ the core mechanical challenge. Everything revolves around it. The game design expects players to engage with it multiple times per session; the rulebook tells you as much explicitly. And for as much work WotC has done on the rules, they have not changed that at all. If you don't carefully balance the encounters, the players will either walk through fights that are supposed to be dramatic or get ground to dust by your standard walk-through fight. Victory in combat has to be a foregone conclusion, otherwise the game just stops on an anti-climax. The players die and have to be deus ex machina'd back to life. Or they retreat and do...what? How often do GMs consider what to do in D&D(-likes) if the players lose, let alone planned for it? Buy more magic items and then retry the fight? Make Diplomacy and Bluff rolls for an hour trying to scrounge up allies to bring back with them, which makes the fight take longer? Plan a whole new sidequest to give them the Magical Wand of Boss Slaying? Yeah, that kind of emergent story sounds fun and spicy until you realize you have to write this surprise bonus episode from wholecloth.
@edmoody2920
Ай бұрын
I'd love to hear you review, read lore, and otherwise, anything cthulhu. Also 100% agree with not balancing combat. Sometimes you find things your stronger then and other times here come some other bbeg who's way stronger and your party shouldn't get involved with them.
@nicolaskoukis4264
Ай бұрын
I love the discussion, and for many games you are right. However I say intent is key. Some games, I find, are more combat based and some rely more on heavy on balance. I rarely balance things for VtM, often giving NPC's absurd powers, resources, and even just leagues of ghoul retainers. Same with CoC, where I have enemies have all sorts of sanity inducing abilities. But other than those games, I also tend to play Pathfinder 2e, which has a completely different feel. The balance of every encounter in that game is essential, since numerically the game is so tight. Players really cannot fight monsters that are 4 levels higher than them, and they just instakill monsters that are for levels below them. That's not to say you can't have tactical moments, or even reward intelligent play. In the harder fights, you sometimes need is, and the game rewards having the right tool for the job. It's moreso the matter of intent... Pathfinder is a more combat centric game, VtM and CoC are more based around horror and intrigue.
@enochlamont877
Ай бұрын
Please, bring your amazing insight and eloquence to Cthulhu material.
@zachmckinney2497
29 күн бұрын
Call of cthulhu is a great rpg and i would to love to see more content on it from you.
@Actalzy
Ай бұрын
Really excited hearing you talk about CoC and hope to see much more. It is my favorite system these days, really excited they announced the Cthulhu by Gaslight supplement release which is the Victorian age series.
@JoMoRising13
Ай бұрын
AGREED! It is embarrassing to see DMs try to balance fights.
@retrostoryteller
Ай бұрын
Ever run any homebrew crossovers? Currently got the Baali in my chronicle as mythos worshippers for badguys.
@LoreByNightVtM
Ай бұрын
I have not run any CoC-related stuff, yet but that does sound like an interesting idea 🧐👀
@VooshSpokesman
Ай бұрын
Love from a Adan and Vaush fan!
@Mark31520
Ай бұрын
Interesting advice, though… To be honest, hearing that is more or less a reminder to myself the next time I gain the courage to GM a group campaign, but right now I'll be doing TTRPGs solo. As for a story… This one was from the final session I was with my D&D group when I was a player. Our group headed towards some warehouse where it is said to be abandoned, or at least infested? It's been a long time so my memory's fuzzy at that. I was playing a fighter/warlock with a fairy dragon familiar, and I had her (my familiar) do some sleuthing around to find out that the warehouse was haunted by mad spirits, and they were able to detect my familiar. Thankfully, my familiar got out safely but my party were too cocky (We were around level four to five around that point) and entered the warehouse only to be attacked by them instantly. We found out really quick that if these spirits hit you with either a spell or an attack, they will permanently make your age older. So, I being the smart player (And the most scared of the bunch) did a tactical retreat, carrying another fighter and our group's bard who were afflicted by the spirits old age abilities the most, got out of there safely. Although, really, that was the last time I got to play with the group. I was dealing a lot of stress and grief so my GM contacted me and gave me the choice, and I chose to drop out due to how bad my mental health was affecting me.
@fangtsu
Ай бұрын
Ia! IA! C'thulhu f'tagn.
@sergamaralinevods
Ай бұрын
Systems I plan to learn call of Cthulhu and shin megami tensei
@pekojounin
Ай бұрын
Very interesting take on that. I love mixing and matching rules and lore from other sources to enrich my World of Darkness games. By the way, as a fellow hat-wearer… that’s a fucking awesome hat. Where did you get it?
@LoreByNightVtM
Ай бұрын
A local cowboy shop funny enough lol. Had it for at least 12yrs
@pekojounin
Ай бұрын
@@LoreByNightVtM Does it make you sweat when is hot? Because I have a cotton one and makes me dripping wet.
@LoreByNightVtM
Ай бұрын
@pekojounin Not really, but I don't get hot all that often so 🤷
@pekojounin
Ай бұрын
@@LoreByNightVtM Lucky you. I get hot easily and I can stand it. And I live in fucking Spain, so you get the idea.
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