Cthulhu Live ?

[kinnygraham]

One of my former players is a big LARP fan, and I have a very mild interest in trying out LARPing which in all liklihood is unlikely to get beyond that stage due to various constraints (mainly time).

But if I were to try a game, it would probably be something like 'Cthulhu Live' or a variant thereof (my current rpg of choice is Delta Green and this post is partly prompted by the fact that I bought the 'Cthulhu Live: Delta Green' book and was intrigued by what I read).

So - anyone care to tell me what I'm missing and share their experiences of Cthulhu Live (esp Delta Green) or other Lovecraftian themed LARPS ?

Also interested to hear about any good modern espionage themed stuff...

[James Holloway]

I've run a number of Cthulhu Live games, one of which was Delta Green. The others included both 1920s games (which require a fair bit of location scouting, costuming and so on) and modern-day games (which are a bit easier, as you can imagine). I've also played in a couple of games at conventions. I think the system is quite good. Later supplements add quite a lot of complexity, which you may like to avoid -- as written, the system is very fast and simple, although lacking in tactical depth in combat (which is not a big problem for me).

If properly staged, the experience can be very cool, and the books are strongly geared towards helping GMs with stagecraft and presentation. The mailing list, which is still going strong, is similarly oriented.

Games I ran:

- "Uncle Timothy's Will." No relation to the classic CoC scenario of the same name. Characters gather at a remote mountain estate for the reading of an eccentric uncle's will. Some people turn out to be cannibal necromancers; hilarity ensues. Ended with a TPK, which I thought was very Cthulhu-y.

- "The Cybertronic Affair." Modern-day game with corporate conspiracies. Involved building a website for the evil corporation and putting together a TV spot for them using stock footage. We also built one of this gigantic goddamn puppets to be the King in Yellow, who appeared in a dream sequence.

- "Dark Continent." Big wilderness game set in the 1930s, in which the characters went on an archaeological dig in Africa. Not my finest hour; too ambitious, location too remote. I buried stuff. Atmosphere of the playing area appropriately spooky, and players enjoyed themselves, but too much work. Got a wicked sunburn.

- "Who Shot Harry Scott?" Murder mystery in a house, keeping the ol' budget down. Nicely paranoid. Involved Yithians and Yekubians, both of whom mainly appeared as lighting effects.

- "The Osiris Club." From a published script. Two-part scenario set in 1950s LA, clearly inspired partly by Ellroy. Cool masquerade-party sequence at end, and nice 1950s costuming from players. Went with PCs, all in 1950s garb, to local 1950s-themed diner for meeting with contact, got one of the few tables in the place without a hatrack. All had hats -- necessity of hatracks in diners became immediately clear.

- "I Have No Idea What This Was Called." A small game in the modern day, involving a secret lab doing sinister experiments. Involved the triumphant appearance of Ten Dollar Monster, who scared one player so badly that he fled across the room, sliding on his belly under a table to get away from it. Ten Dollar Monster FTW!

- "Something or Other." DG game with two cells. Had a cool bit where the two cells were briefed in separate conference rooms, but passed each other on the way. Good personality mix of characters, quasi-lame plot by me. Some interesting incidents.

- "In Media Res." The classic scenario from TUO. Ran this three times, with hilariously different results each time.

I'd be happy to talk in more detail about any of these games if you're interested.

[Crayne]

Please do. :)

I'd love to organise some good games over here in the Netherlands, but I'd appreciate some warstories before I make a serious attempt.

[James Holloway]

Please do. :)

I'd love to organise some good games over here in the Netherlands, but I'd appreciate some warstories before I make a serious attempt.

Well, geez, we're talking about my fund of CL war-stories here, which is pretty extensive. Give me a starting point, here. What kind of thing are you curious about?

Um, OK, here's a good one: in the first game, I had a number of "dummy PCs." These were NPCs armed with specific pieces of plot information and instructions, scripted to die early on in the game. When an obvious NPC, one played by the Keeper, died, the PCs were spooked by the gruesome death scene we staged, but I don't know if they were <i>surprised</i>. But when apparent PCs got chopped early in the game, they certainly were.

They came back as zombies, by the way, and had an absolute blast doing it. Which is another tip: always have something -- and something cool -- for dead PCs to do. If a PC death means the player can no longer be involved in the game, you won't ever want to kill them.

[countrysamurai]

In 1988, we ran a Lovecraft LARP before there were any such thing as LARPS (to our knowledge anyhow). It took place on Halloween on the campus of New Mexico State University. It involved the murder of my roommate, a teacher's aid, who read too much. A secret cult of students were working on summoning some shambling thing from out of time and space. We had five groups of players accompanied by guides while they had a scavenger hunt across campus. Players who died got to come back later as robed cultists at the summoning. I think two groups of cultist got detained by campus police and missed the final confrontation, but overall, it went very well and everyone had a good time.

Ten years ago a friend of mine ran "Grace Under Pressure" (TUO) live using a detatched garage as the sub and the house as the underwater base. Walkie talkies and underwater mammal sounds added to the spookiness. A chase involving a Deep One and one player ended abruptly when the player ran full tilt into a sealed hatch (closed door) that he thought was open. :eek:
Live horror games can bring about some real fear and flight responses so be careful out there.

[Attila-IV]

What's this TUO everyone is talking about?

I've been running Cthulhu Live for the past 5 years and it keeps getting better. The best advice I can give you is don't do it alone. Make sure you have some kind of staff and devide responsabuilities accordingly. A Keeper to hadle the plot, a Stage Manager to handle the locations and a Prop/SFX guy to get your moster costumes and other oddities together. And make sure they are responsible. Few things in Cthulhu Live are more frustrating then calling your monster maker the night before a game to make sure the beastie is ready, only to find out that not only is it not done, but all the has to show for 2 weeks of preperation time is a collection of scetches and one tentacle.

Actualy fear is a real treat to achive in Cthulhu Live. I remember is our first game having a mass of tentacles burst through a door and try to grab one of the players. She nearly tripper over 2 other players as she fled from the room. It took her a moment or two to calm down.

If you need any premade scripts I've got a few.

"The Return of Cyris Crane" Accentric billionare Cyris Crane vanished in the Arkham hillside one late Autumn night. Missing and presumed dead, he has now returned to Crane Manor. But what strange horror comes with him? (one of our most successful games)

"One Starry Night" Professor Derwin Abernethy invites the investigators for a chat over tea, only to reveal that he needs their help to recover a stolen artifact. This scenation is written for 3-5 players. It involved minimal prop and FX work, but it does require a number of locations. It is designed as an into to Cthulhu Live and most Sanity checks are low level.

"The Tomb of Nephren-Ka" The Arkham Museum of Natural History is unveiling a new Egyptology wing. At the gala grand opening the Investigators find themselves caught between Nazi agents and a foul cult who both seek to claim the Scroll of Nyarlathotep. (a fun game with naziz, cultists and zombies)

"The Ageless" Lord Arthur Westfield, collector of oddities, has recently aquired Bowen's Mummy, the preserved corpse of a deformed priest of uncertain origens. Experts and diletantes converge at Westfield's yearly salon and find themselves drawn into the machinations of an conspiracy dating back to the dawn of human civilisation. (a victorian game with cultists, con-men and a gentleman cerial killer)

[James Holloway]

What's this TUO everyone is talking about?

TUO is the classic Call of Cthulhu magazine, <i>The Unspeakable Oath</i>. It contained lots of cool articles, scenarios and reviews. The first four issues, sans later-reprinted material, are available free online here. (http://www.tccorp.com/pagan/pp_annotuo.html) The most recent issue, 16/17 is still in print, I think, but most of the other issues are out of print. If you see 'em and you like <i>Call of Cthulhu</i>, you should snap them up.

[kinnygraham]

Thanks for all the detail so far - all sounds very intriguing.......(particularly the $10 Monster......gotta ask what that was !!?).

How does SAN actually work ? Presumably its role played, but how does one actually decide how mentally tough a character is and whether they bug out at the sight of a particular creature ??

[Attila-IV]

The sanity system is pretty streight forward. Anything that can shake an investigators sanity prompts a sanity test. The POW of the investigator is compared to the intensity of the test. if the POW exceeds the level of the test they loose only a little sanity (an sometimes none). If the intensity of the test exceeds the Investigators POW the investigato looses a lot of sanity. If you loose 5 points of Sanity at once you are overtaken by fear and are expected to role play it. If you loose 20% in a hour you go insane and are assigned some sort of mental disorder from the Keeper.

There are a couolke of ways to do this in game. The Keeper can call out the Sanity test (this usualy created a slight pause in the game as the players check their sanity). Or monsters and tomes can be marked with the proper Sanity test. Our group uses a 3rd metheod. Since we usualy work with no more than 15 players the Keeper keeps his own tally of each Investigators Sanity points. The players never actualy know how many points they have lost or how many they have left (unless they Psychoanalyse each other). When an important number of Sanity points is lost the Keeper whisperes over their shoulder that they are insane and gives them some indea just how their insanity manifests. If the player has proven to be a great ham in the past we usualy just let them wing it as far as their madness goes.

This will all be changing at GenCon Indy 2006 when the 3rd Edition of Cthulhu Live is released. The Sanity System has been compleatly rebuilt from the ground up.

[James Holloway]

Thanks for all the detail so far - all sounds very intriguing.......(particularly the $10 Monster......gotta ask what that was !!?).



<b>Ten Dollar Monster</b> appeared at the climax of the game. The players were entering a darkened laboratory. We had rigged the place up with flashing red lights (just bicycle flashers stuck to the walls, actually) and fog, but no main lighting -- there was supposed to be a crisis going on. At the far end of the lab, with lots of tables and stuff in the way, was the NPC they were trying to find, lying on the floor. It was pretty hard to see him from a distance.

Now, little did they know that the NPC was having the life-force sucked out of him by a larval monster, a sort of Colour Out of Space dealy. This ... was <b>Ten Dollar Monster!</b>

TDM consisted of the following:

- in the NPC's right hand there was a long black rod, which was light enough to be moved with one hand.

- this was attached to a loop of wire a foot or 18" long or so, which was connected to:

- more light steel wire, formed into a sort of dome shape. This was the "head" of the monster.

- we had then taken tons of very light plastic sheeting, torn it into raggedy layers, and draped it over the dome framework. This created an effect like a jellyfish -- a dome-like head with a long, flowing body underneath. When the head moved up, the skirt billowed up and then floated down like the skirt of a jellyfish under water.

- the final thing was given a light coating of cyalume fluid, so that it glowed patchily in the dark. The fluid pooled in the creases of the plastic, creating an effect like veins of brighter luminescence, which was nice.

So when the lead PC got close enough, I just jerked my right hand, and TDM bobbed up horribly from its resting place on the floor. The multiple joins in the wire meant that the head swayed back and forth with the slightest movement of the rod, and it just hung there for a moment, swaying and bobbing.

The player freaked the fuck out.

[daHob]

in the one Cthulhu Live game I ran, I had similar monster. A star spawn, if I remember correctly. It was made from a bundle of 8'-10' long pieces of foam pipe insulation bundled at one end to form a sort of giant anemone kind of thing. We taped two circular lamps to the side for lighted eyes.

It's amazing how much darkness, a strobe light and heavy fog will cover up.

[countrysamurai]

One of the props for the college game included parts of a long dead and dried out crow found in a campus parking lot. eewww
The main monster was actually a large rain slick with foam stuck to it and face paint.