Call of Cthulhu: Part 2 - Character Creation
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- čas přidán 14. 01. 2018
- Building a Player Character for 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu.
You can download the Character Sheets here: www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-char...
Buy the rulebook here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1...
Find the free Quickguide here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Find my own fiction here: amzn.to/2CYBg3q
If you want a copy of the Jack Mallone Character, here you go: drive.google.com/open?id=1-8y... - Hry
We always marked the max sanity going down by blacking out the top of the sanity meter, where they could never go again due to their terrible knowledge. Even if it was only a point or three, the players always thought about it.
Yoink
I know it's straightforward once you get used to it, but CoC really makes an argument for auto calculators
Simple math calls for an auto calculator? Has education failed the youth that much that they can't divide numbers by 2 and 5?
Yeah, the character sheet is a bit of a mess. Seems like one of those games stuck in the past.
@@The13thGhostBunny Is dividing by 2 and 5 too hard for the little baby? This is math that 3rd graders learn.
If it's too hard there's an auto calculator pdf on Chaosism and Roll20.
@@bast4rdlyreaper Why are you going around insulting random strangers? I didn't say it was hard did I? I said the sheet was a mess. Comparing it to more modern games it's a system stuck in the past.
@@The13thGhostBunny What do you consider a "modern game"? All modern pen and paper RPGs require simple math.
The "save 15 points" -tip is a great advice. I am going to remember it for future charachter creation in all rpg:s I play.
We were playing _Horror on the Orient Express,_ on a storyline that took us from London to Constantinople. None of our characters took any language skills - well, _modern_ languages, we had some Ancient Greek and Latin speakers - so we ended up as the typical English tourists abroad, speaking English LOUDLY and s-l-o-w-l-y and not having much of a clue what was going on, all the way across Europe. The back-up characters ended up getting German and Serbian and Turkish tacked onto them when they made their (inevitable) appearances.
It may have behooved the Keeper to advise players to choose languages spoken on the continent of the time. It IS all about a European -road- train trip.
Awesome. This is why I love RPGs
Your party mills haplessly around in the village square. The native Egyptians, those who take the time to glance at you, regard you with placid annoyance, as if you were a few runaway goats.
"Is there anyone here who speaks English? Or maybe even ancient Greek?"
Some heavy footfalls behind you cast a shadow as a large hand claps your shoulder.
"Oh! Marcus Brody, sir!"
Blinking hazily against the high sun, the fuzzy form behind you resolves to that of Sallah.
I absolutely love this.
someone in the party should have just hired a translator problem solved.
After playing D&D for over 20 years and recently having read some Lovecraft and played Arkham Horror board games, I’m finally about to venture into the depths of this system with much excitement. Your videos helped IMMENSELY. Thank you.
Jack gets stat'd out. Appearance = 85.
I'll be referring to him as Jack "Fancypants" Mallone from now on.
Or just, "Mister Fancypants".
Not Handsome Jack?
He prefers Pretty Boy Mallone, himself. But I just call him Jack, otherwise he gets all big-headed. I like to keep him in check.
"Handsome" Jack was my initial impulse, but the name sounded too familiar. Turns out it was a Borderlands character.
And there they beheld a loathsome legion of IP lawyers prowling about the periphery, ever ravenous and ever vigilant.
“Well hello mr fancy pants... I got news for you pal, you ain’t leading but two things right now... Jack and Shit... and Jack left town”
I've watched this whole series twice now and I love these videos. Getting my books in the mail soon and then going to run my own game just thanks to your videos.
Did the same.
This video single-handedly piqued my interest in Call of Cthulhu. Might have to take a break from D&D and try this instead...
Thanks for mentioning the "transferable skills rule" at 12:15. This makes a lot of sense to me and I plan to use in my home games now. I've always thought the lines between skills could be a little too black/white. Keep killing it Seth.
Outstanding! I’m coming to CoC late in life, mainly due to the reasons you list in your introduction video. Came here to ensure I was understanding things correctly and I was, but the way you present it is so easy to follow. Thank you.
FYI, Chaosium have updated the character sheets since this vod (40th anniversary sheets), including the auto calc ones. So I believe the Sanity points calc issue mentioned at 22.38 is solved now. Layout looks a little different too, the sanity and luck tables are gone.
Great vod, by the way, even 5 years later. Came here via the Glass Cannon Network. Best decision in 2023 so far, been binging your vods!! :D
Man, took me way too long to figure out how Credit Rating worked. Thanks for the tutorial man, super useful.
Watching this and your video for "The Haunting" before running that as my first scenario helped me so much! My players were spooked and had a real blast - they've been talking about it for days!
Now with that context rewatching these is teaching me even more and I am so excited to GM another scenario soon. Thank you for the excellent content Seth!
Nice video, and I'm glad you go over some of the optional rules. I overlooked many during the first reading through the book.
I think the reason for putting Dodge down again is so it can be referred to as quickly as possible in combat, rather than looking through the skill list. I think it would make more sense if the two default Combat skills were also duplicated there.
I already was a fan of your channel, but this series is pure genius. I've always felt a bit daunted by Call of Cthulhu but after you've put out more of these I'm confident I'll be ready to hunt down Eldritch monsters with the best of them. Can't wait to see what's next!
Having played a fair bit of Runequest (and a little Elric/Stormbringer) I'm just staring at this wondering where the locational health went. Locational damage in rpgs can be a lot of fun.
Have you thought about doing a podcast or a video series of you and some friends playing Call of Cthulhu? I've really been itching to watch some guys play, and I really enjoy watching these videos. Keep up the good work!
We've discussed it and the general consensus was that Game Day for us is our time to hang with friends and not worry about anything. A camera or microphone has the potential of spoiling that, making us self-conscious or feeling the need to play up for the audience, so we decided against it. Though, the Into the Darkness podcast does do recordings and videos of their CoC sessions. So you might check them out.
I completely understand that, and awesome, I'll have to check them out!
Glad you answered Seth (I'd asked in the previous video :) ) and I fully understand your position. But what about doing a couple of sessions with the guys from Into the Darkness ?
While I know this was asked 2 years ago, as an updated reply...I believe Seth appears on several "How We Roll" podcasts dealing with MoN-Peru.
*Please do character creation guides / overview for other systems you & your groups play .*
*Just like you did for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition .*
*I really want to learn more about Conan , aliens & Advanced Dungeons & dragons 1 & 2 .*
Not to oversimplify it, but if I had to give a quick and dirty explanation to my D&D players - I'd say Call of Cthulhu is like playing a level 1 D&D character in a role-play heavy/combat light game where you never level up. Working backwards from the numbers he's throwing out, that's what it looks like to me - especially if you look at the hit points. It's like 5-20hp and the weapons deal about the same amount of damage as D&D weapons. So yeah, basically a level 1 D&D character for life. I like it - super dangerous.
This video is very helpful to me as a future player of Call of Cthulhu. It would be cool if you could do a character creation video for Cyberpunk 2020. (after this series and if you want to, of course.)
Just played a one shot of CoC and will be running my first game soon! Great series.
Me: *has POW of 72*
Me: Parry this you fucking casual
Me: *Summons Yog-Sothoth and uses him to transcribe a copy of the necronomicon*
I'm really enjoying these videos. One thing I would like to see is a video on how to best use an adventure module. Your reviews always get me excited to run modules for a group, especially Cthulhu modules, but I'm never quite sure how to best translate what is in the book to the tabletop.
Hey, Seth. Just wanted to say that I've been coming back to this video time and time again, whether Im introducing new players or need a quick refresher course. I really appreciate the work you put into this series, man. I hope all is well!
"Ok, the auto-calculator says my sanity is 20."
"No, you have to adjust it to 18. Here's some white out."
"OK, but my character flaw is OCD. Augh, the sheet is unacceptably messy now!"
"Yeah, that causes you to lose another sanity because of your OCD. White it out and pencil in 17."
"FUCK!!!"
That's funny. And also quite tragic for that poor, poor OCD character. They never even made it down to choosing Skills before they were permanently insane.
OCDs sound fun
Thanks for this series man! I just got into D&D last month and plan on getting into CoC around next month. I’ve already DMed a couple of one shots for the group I’m a part of, a Discord server for D&D, and I can’t wait to get DMing CoC, especially because my first experience with such roleplaying games was from the SCP Foundation, which has plenty of unimaginable horrors.
I'll definitely be sharing this with all new players to help them build their characters. Really well done, sir.
You gotta do a series about Cyberpunk 2020 after this man! Love watchin' your videos x3
I just started up a semi-regular CoC game and was looking for some pointers when I ran across your series. Excellent work, sir. I immediately posted this video to our group's FB gamer page. When you do get to the inevitable Pulp Cthulhu episode, you might want to mention just how much of a bad-ass you can create just by using the quick-start rules. Good God Almighty! And, finally, a friend had a house rule that I adopted for rolling up Stats; roll one more stat than is needed and throw out the lowest one. I do like your rule of rerolling 1s. I adopted that and one of my guys was very happy to revise his stats based on that.
I've been playing CoC for a while now but i just decided to watch this series as kind of a refresher. Really helpful and just overall nice to listen to while working on One-Shots or Campaigns.
Great videos I recently bought a bunch of call off Cthulhu books and plan on running many campaigns on it so these are helping me understand things better
Honestly, Seth, this is a great approach! I really like this kind of video series...
It's so easy for a lot of content makers to come across with a general "this is the ONLY way to play..." kind of theme, and then the comments section can quickly turn into a dumpster fire. While this sort of approach may not prevent it, it does provide a researchable basis for how you arrive at some of the general conclusions about the game that you explain. GOOD JOB! :o)
A psychopath condition would be handy for COC. You would immune to trauma from seeing suffering and gore and highly resistant and resilient to sanity loss from mythos encounters.
Thanks for this video! It's a great way for me catch up on the rules again a bit, and forgot about the 10 points increase after one category reaches 50% :D
Amazing video. This will be extremely helpful to show new players.
Another excellent intro video! Darn it, you are slowly tempting me back into the madness that is Call of Cthulu! Must resist...
Great video as usual! Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Different from many others, I begun in the RPG world with CoC not D&D, mainly by luck (my mom bought to my brother a magazine with the haunting scenario) and because I personally don't like that much medieval and fantasy stuff. It doesn't mean I don't play them, it's just not cup of tea (I also had terrible encounters with D&D fanboys, considering I'm a girl and they had such an inappropriate way towards me).
Now I have good friends that like medieval stuff and I'm learning, and I play with them but my preferred RPG game is CoC because it was my first contact ever with RPG in general. This series are amazing! Keep doing the good work.
You're one of the lucky ones. I've noticed that players who started with non-D&D RPGs are far more open to different play-styles and are more open to trying new systems. It took me far too long to peek my head outside of D&D and discover games I preferred or that many of my issues and complaints about D&D weren't issues in other games.
Totally understand having medieval fantasy not being your cup up tea. I'll play it if someone offers to run it, but have no interest in running it myself anymore. It just doesn't excite me the way modern(ish) and sci-fi setting do.
Sorry you had to deal with jerks giving you grief for being a girl. I don't think D&D has a higher percentage of jerks than other RPG fandoms, but because there's so many more people that play D&D, that percentage translates into a whole lotta jerks. That said, Call of Cthulhu has always been proud that they've always had a higher percentage of women players than other games. There's several theories for why that is, but the community seems to be a lot less toxic in that regard.
Hey man, just wanted to comment and say I love your videos. These have been monumentally helpful. I started playing DnD forever ago (for me any way, about 16 years ago when i was about 14) and am mostly a GM. I recently got into Cthulu and will probably be mostly GMing that too and honestly your videos are insightful and entertaining. Keep it up, looking forward to watching more.
Thank you very much. Glad to be of help. Hope you and your players enjoy Cthulhu.
You are a hypnotizing Slav. Luv u.
Thanks for another fantastic video, my book is arriving today and im glad I can get a decent head start on learning the system a bit. I've been playing DnD for years but this is a whole new beast to tackle.
Best of luck. The system is super-easy, so tackling it won't be a problem.
Welcome to Call of Cthulhu.
Thanks for the videos, just started to run Call of Cthulhu, and your videos are are very informative!
so jack the npc's last name is mallone? cool!
"Hello Internets!!!" love the intro!
Thanks for the English subtitles, it makes the video easier to watch by translating it into Spanish. (Google Translate) :D
thanks for what you do Seth this series is very helpful
Dude I just started running CoC and this series is a crazy good resource. I find the books aren't structured very well; like they work, but rules tend to be all over the place rather than organized into logical categories.
Happy to help.
The 15 points concept is a great idea :D
I always let players roll a pool of scores and then chose what specific ability to assign them to, to better help them make the sort of character they are interested in playing.
Another excellent video as per usual
Great series!
So I totally subscribed... and I dig your info... good stuff.
Yes! I Iove this series!
Seth, seth seth seth! Another great vid!
Another great video. I just got "Down Darker Trails" for some Wild West action.
I still need to pick that one up.
Haaa! I hit like just for the wonderful ending! :D
Came to this vid for a catch-up. Haven't played CoC for 28 years. Happened to play a quicky with friends a year ago on a lark, I GMed, and left them the original CoC rule book. They were hooked, created an adventure on their own, and that's what I'm doing Sat Oct 6th, 2018!
Hey! Me and my group are looking to switch from D&D to Call of Cthulhu soon, and while I really love COC's system, one thing that annoys me is that the appearence score doesn't have any statistical impact on the game. I was thinking about having a house rule where the Investigator is able to take 1/5 of their appearance and add that many points to their interpersonal skills. Does that sound like a good idea?
Interesting. And I do agree that APP could use more in-game effect, but I see a couple things.
Intimidate would benefit more from ugly characters. Also if we have a PC with an APP of 25, they're ugly, but by your idea they would still get a +5% to Charm.
So instead, I say we take APP 50 as average. Plusses or minuses would depend on how far they fall above or below that.
The book has in the conversion rules for previous editions that a bonus or penalty of + or - 20% is a Bonus or Penalty Die. So going by that, you could say that a PC with an APP of 70-89 could get a bonus die on Charm or Fast Talk, and 99-00 get a Double Bonus. Meanwhile PCs with an APP of 11-30 get a Penalty Die and 10 or under get a double-penalty. Then I'd make Intimidate the inverse, granting bonuses for ugly and penalties for pretty. What do you think?
Sounds like a good idea, thanks!
Good breakdown! Thanks for the vid! :D
Fantastic video! Will you (or have you) ever delved into some of the other rule sets like trail of Cthulhu or Pulp Cthulhu? As well as their pros/cons? Keep up these vids, they are very helpful!
Never tried Tail of Cthulhu. But I'm very versed in Pulp Cthulhu. I will eventually go into that.
I'm just starting on CoC from a long time playing DnD and Dark Heresy, and this series is wonderful, I'm loving so much these mechanics. I just have one question, in the core rulebook and this video i see there is only random generation of characteristics, but in the quickstart there is a standard build allocation, are there more methods instead of random generation then?
Yes, there's other methods, including a point-buy and one where you can pre-determined assign stats. They're all in the Investigator's Handbook.
@@SSkorkowsky too fast haha, thank a lot. And wow that's really nice, definitely that book looks promising, If my group likes CoC enough im going to get that.
... Random picture out of the internet. Did you just google: bad*ss Slayer of Nyarlathotep? :D
I'm going to go ahead and show these videos to my players. :)
Hope they find it helpful.
Hey Seth, I've been watching your videos for a while now and must say, your no-nonsense to the point explanations have been fantastic for me and my friends. We all played D&D in our younger years and in high school, but fell out of playing it for a long time (some of us close to 10 years). We have a group now consisting of people scattered across Canada hoping to play CoC over a voice chat program called Discord (which allows for transferring of files, a mod to virtually roll dice and post pictures). Do you have any tips or tricks for people just coming back to table top RPGs or do you have any tips for a verbal only campaign/session? Thanks and regards from Toronto!
Welcome back to RPGs. Glad my little videos have been helpful. Aside from a couple sessions as a player, I'm not a virtual table-top person. So I can't offer much help there. As for tips on coming back, there are a ton of resources out there now that we didn't have way back in the day. There's lots of new games and edition and many of the things coming out now are so much more streamlined than they once were.
For Call of Cthulhu, my players and I have become much more knowledgeable about the 1920's. You go onto Wikipedia to learn about on thing and 4 hours later you're an expert on Stanley Steamer automobiles (those things were so cool). The only real advice I can offer is to have fun. All the cool maps and intricate plots are all meaningless if you don't walk into every session with the intent that you and your friends are going to laugh and have a good time.
Name: Dr. Somebody. Unorganized Crime Package. Occupation: Murder Hobo. APP: Troglodyte. EDU: Doctor of Complicated Surgery (underground). / Credit Rating: WANTED! Weapons: knive, scapula, and pointy stuff. Language: Other. Psychoanalysis: Psycho. Phobias & Manias: Yes. Encounters with Strange Entities:
K
Hey seth, these video's have been great and I have an idea for my own character based off marcus brody; I lean more toward academic characters it seems, maybe on occasion detectives.
I dig it.Marcus Brody - He speaks Ancient Greek but no current languages outside of English. High Archaeology. High History. No Disguise and no Navigate (he got lost in his own museum once). His Ride Horse is also pretty low.
he is also deadly with a pen in close quarters..
I've always thought that the Indiana Jones films as a whole would do excellent as a Call of Cthulhu screencap comic. Most of the characters are stereotypes of the genre already.
true, not to mention the artifacts could easily be changed if you didn't want to go with the popular items though the stones of kali (i think that was temple of doom) could be an interesting piece to go after
A wonderful help to learn character creation. Thumbs up and recommended.
Hello again, Seth. Figured I would post here in a little... ask for advice?
Now, I've finally (The Session Zero) formed a party of three for a good ol' game of Call of Cthulhu, 7e. Not Pulp, because everybody is new to CoC, including me as Keeper, so, we all helped each other with character creation...
And so the highlight character so far of the trio, to a point I fudged rolls a bit so after we developed him he could more fit the idea everybody had in mind, is Otis... the handyman of another player's (that "rich old history professor" character turned out with Wealthy CR) house. Now, we all agreed (though in hindsight I'm not sure WHY) that even though he SHOULD be a Butler, he would have some experience as a Military Officer of sorts, with the lowest CR of 20 for that occupation, though... not for a Butler. For Otis... we all agreed to think Michael Clarke Duncan, and that was part of what endeared him to us as a concept. Another was the on-the-fly roleplay of his player.
Possible anachronism? I dunno.
Problem is, I'm wondering if I as keeper have as a result gotten too attached to his character? I mean, we all accept when a character dies, they die, but... we are all dreading it in the future with Otis.
I mean, the way we did example roleplay, at least with Otis and his boss, it seemed more Pulp and joking, so... I don't want to give players a misleading first impression, but I don't want to just kill off this trio because "the way the dice fall"... as much as I previously assured myself I will.
In this instance, I'd invoke the rule of cool. It's okay to fudge a few rolls to make sure Otis doesn't die in a boring and undramatic way, like a car crash, or fight with some low-level cultists. Make sure that when he dies (it's CoC, something's gonna get him eventually) it's in a memorable scene, and in a meaningful way. Sacrificing himself to prevent the ritual from succeeding. Jumping in front of the wealthy character to take a bullet for him. Something that ensures that character's immortality in story.
As a beginning keeper, I love these! One slight problem I have is how to best walk my also new players through the character creation. For our first adventure (The Haunting - went really well using the advice from your review) I printed out step-by-step instructions of the fast character creation. I fear that might not be possible with the big bulk of rules when creating an in-depth character. Any thoughts?
Character creation takes some getting used to, especially in Skill-Based systems where they player is going through a big list of skills and alloting points. We use many Post-It notes in the process as scratch paper to do all the math on.
After the Character Creation rules in the Quickstart Guide, the Investigator's Handbook does a good job of really walking a player through the creation process. For me, I sit with them and go through it slowly for the first PC. After that, they can do it alone if they wish, but I offer to sit with them and walk them through until they feel comfortable (I always double-check them if they did them on their own. Sometimes they forget to buy Credit, choose their Key Backstory Connection, or some other minor thing).
The process I used in the video is pretty much the system we follow. They come up with the concept and occupation, roll stats, choose skills, then get to all the meat on the back half.
Now, I do allow for more moving of stat points in my games. Either they can shift a couple stats numbers, or simply re-roll the whole set and go with the best set.
I might have an addition... regarding my "usual" method for helping new players...
I agree with Seth on getting an Investigator's Handbook... BUT... get back to one of your copies of the "fast character creation" printout, and work through the Handbook section by section according to those steps. You can either do it with the downloadable pdf files (I believe they're still available somewheres) or even scan a copy direct (even at like an Office Max or similar brick-and-mortar outfit) and work it out with copy-paste processes in your spare time.
Then print out the "final packet" either as an addition to the fast-creation printout... or as it's own complete entity a kind of "advanced creation packet" that you can walk your players through one on one...
You don't have to include EVERY single thing from the Handbook, either. Since you probably know your players better than any of us, and you have an idea of what kind of "advanced" game you feel ready to run, you can read and copy over to your "new printout" whatever particularly seems to add the most to the game, and answer questions and requests as need be for the time being.
Role Playing is a steady growth process really no different from taking up acting or art. Consider the general point to be a marathon and pace yourself and your players, instead of a sprint, to try to achieve specific goals quickly. You'll have an easier time running the game and keeping everyone on the "same page" progressively, and everyone will probably have more fun. :o)
Seth Skorkowsky Thanks for the comprehensive answer. The investigators handbook is a great help indeed! I just need to try and keep them from making really weird and complicated characters in the beginning. (:
gnarth d'arkanen I didn't really use the pages of the books, instead I wrote short instructions to keep it all on one page. But I might use more of the investigators handbook this time.
This stat sheet alone makes me interested to play this...
I am rewatching this as I'm sending to a new player and realised I hadn't liked the video, feel free to arrest me on the spot
Are there any limitations or restrictions on what starting gear/weapons the investigators should have? Should it be in relation in to their credit rating somehow?
General rule would be nothing more than their Assets could afford. Any magic/Mythos items would need Keeper approval, of course.
3:32 A question regarding the stats. Is there some way to swap the stats, because what if I want to play a scientist and roll very high on Strength and Size but poorly on Intelligence and Education? Should I just swap the occupation, because yes, a unintelligent scientist is surely possible but, I don't want to play a scientist if I want to play a dumb character.
Of course.
Hey Seth. Am trying to get my crew to do an online game,scheduling, my problem is the links I used for chaosium gives me NOT the cool auto calcing player sheets like you use....ya know the one with the jazzy pips for Sanity and Luck. If you could update your link to it I would be appreciative. Thanks Seth!
Chaosium changed the sheets some time back. The links go to the Chaosium Website, but I have no control as to which sheets they offer.
@@SSkorkowsky thanks mate. The newa be the news. BTW am listening to the modern mythos cast Right now on the 1970s film scenario. Oh BTW is there any way you could....if you've the time, post a link or such to Your copy of those sexy sheets? Or are there strange legal things happening there????
Just curious if you have ever looked at Trail of Cthulhu and if so, what do you think of it?
What upped the stats for skills from the initial 28 in creation? You didn't say why one went up to a 53 for example. Is it part of a package? Is it due to a int modifier? What?
I said at 9:18 Each skill has a number next to it. That's the starting level. The points you put in a skill add to that. So Brawl, that starts at 25% goes up to 53% when you add 28 points. So if you don't add any points to a skill, you still can attempt a skill roll at the base level for that skill.
Seth,
Just a quick question about character skills... I haven't quite read everything about creating a character yet, however, I noticed you added the Dodge and Own Language skills in addition to the occupation skills listed for Investigator. I am writing up a Journalist which includes Own Language. Are adding Dodge and Own Language a house rule? As I said, I haven't finished reading everything (I literally just got my books a few days ago), but I don't recall seeing anything that says to add these two skills.
Any info you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Every skill has a base that it starts at. It's listed beside it on the sheet. Dodge and Own Language do not have a set start number, but a stat. That's where those numbers came from. A Player can spend points to increase them, but that's the base.
@@SSkorkowsky So is that to say "technically speaking" a player character has all skills, in some capacity, since there are numbers in just about all of them?
Most skills yes. Credit and Cthulhu Mythos being the big exceptions since they start at 0%. Everything else (not looking at a book ar the moment so don't quote me here) should start at at least 1%.
@@SSkorkowsky Perfect! Thank you so much for your help! Love your videos and books!
No problemo. Have fun with Call of Cthulhu.
Pardon me, Sir, where did you get your black on black Miskatonic U shirt?
So where can we find that swanky pic of Jack? I may want to use it myself for a similar character :p
I know I’m crazy late but you made a mistake with Credit Rating. The job you chose starts at 9, not 0, and maxes out at 30.
Hence the “Credit Rating: 9-30”
Hope this helps anybody!
It's not a mistake. If anything, I didn't bring up Credit Range.
The Credit Rating Skill starts at 0. The chosen Occupation has as a Credit Rating range of 9-30, but the player must still spend 9-30 points to get whatever Credit Rating they choose. So no, they don't start at 9 Credit. They start at 0 Credit. If they want a Credit of 9, they still spend 9 Skill Points, even if the Credit Rating range starts at 9.
p68 Investigator's Handbook.
I have a question: would a military nurse character be allowed to have the war experience package?
If they were a combat medic, I'd say yes. If they were a nurse, then I'd go with the Medical Experience Package. War Experience package is geared more toward Rifle, Throw, and combat skills, while Medical is about medical skills. Ultimately, it's the Keeper's call.
Khas: can you help everyone on the Internet play a smart serpent, that’s what I am?
Me: sure, I’ll put their stats here!
Me: I should also put the lore down.
Lore: these beings may not be able to blink, but these snakes are certainly intelligent.
They are dark purple on top and light blue on the bottom, and they have two tails which kind of look like their head From above. they have reddish eyebrows that are right above their eyes, these eyebrows are just patterns that they used to them out to each other.
They eat just about anything other than other snakes and humanoids, although if you give them a snake to eat, they are going to take it as a great insult. They usually like eating things like rabbits, insects, nettles, Rice, fruits, vegetables and fish.
Despite their lack of fingers they are remarkably good at weaving as they live far more north than anyone would expect such a snake. The serpents go into brumation* in the winter -kind of like hibernation, except they don’t fully sleep ever, and once they wake up, they basically go through our giant orgy thing like many other snakes. The sterile druids control these orgies and turn them into basically a crawling one, except all of their physical stats doubled. they can resist it but it really itches down there when they don’t do this.
They like living in their own homes by rivers, especially by rivers where they can catch seals to it, at least at their home they could. their homes are usually made of ceramic, they also don’t mind living in sewers. Their homes are usually located just above the sewers and smart serpents in these places can get used to the smell after a while. They commonly live in cities such as Venice and Philadelphia, in similar settings with good plumbing systems and lots of history to explore. They usually serve the Deities the Yellow King, Hastur , and the bluish queen, although they could serve just about any great old ones, but they don’t really serve many of the outer gods other than the Black Goat.
Smart serpents, venomless nagas
STR 40 ((3d6)-2)•5
CON 65 ((2d6)+6)•5
SIZ 45 ((2d4)+4)•5
DEX 50 (3d6•5)
INT 65 ((2d6)+6)•5
POW 50 (3d6•5)
EDU 65 ((2d6)+6)•5
HP: 11 MP: 10
Move: 6/6swimming
Average damage bonus: -1
Average build: -1
Typsing: water and one of grass, ghost, fairy and fighting or nothing but water.
attacks
Fighting attacks: they often constrict but can also use tools and weapons.
Constriction: they can grapple their opponent making a fighting maneuver that also deals 1D2 damage Plus damage bonus if the target fails to make a con roll, if they fumble that con roll they have their heart explodes and they immediately die.
Fighting of 40(20/8), this is used for both the knife tricks and for the grappling, 1d2+dB.
Dodge of 50(25/10)
Armor points: if hit the serpent with damage from the cold ther speed is reduced by two and then will immediately attack you, presuming you were dealing with the Froster damage.
skills:
intimidation/persuasion 45%,
Natural world 45%,
Botany 36%,
stealth 55%,
listen 55%,
sling of 55%
swimming 70%.
Sanity loss: smart serants do not usually cause Sanity loss, but thier Druids usually the only ones disturbing either for sanity Loss but they vary by scenario.
Playing as a smart serpent.
The key thing to remember about this one playing one is that the skills listed above are examples. With that being said, there are three abilities that should be mentioned that are distinct from humans.
1, assuming temperate waters like the ocean or large lake smart serpents can swim for incredibly long distances without having to make landfall. swimming and slithering to them are like walking for us.
2, Smart serpents only need to eat once per week but they need to drink every day.
3, they see humans in a similar light to what we see as horses, but they do still see us as people.
i my experience so far only a few of the core skills/ stats seem too serve any purpose the rest is window dressing. con+size is S tier because this defines the pcs health,
pow is magic resistance so super important,.
appearance is a dump stat looking pretty wont save you from a monster or help you drive better in a chase etc, strength would be better if most fights didnt come down to running, firepower aka dynamite or superior tactics and fire power but the ability to remove or bypass an obstacle with brute force is handy.
intelligence seems good initially for skills but when you only realy have a small core rotation of skills that see regular use high skill points don't help much mainly only good for idea rolls, a higher education helps to give you a better credit rating which makes it easier to get stuff. dex is a god stat you can guess how long a pc will last based on how good this stat is for them affects how well you dodge and how fast you run.
As for skills you need to have someone with people skills charm, fast talk or persuade, being able to read people with psychology also helps, climb, jump and swim for avoiding danger are good, track and survival are helpful.
dodge is essential, spot hidden and listen are essential, drive auto/pilot is good, and you need someone on the team with medicine and first aid. Having someone on the team who can fix machines and electrics is necessary, and every one should be able to throw dynamite, fire a gun ideally rifle/shotguns and fight up close( as a last resort). if someone takes science take chemistry for obvious reasons for anything else academic that what idea rolls are for.
App doesn't serve much mechanical effect. Using it for roleplay or giving an effect like a Bonus Die on social rolls are popular uses, but aren't in the rules. An exception is some Occupations have APP as one of the 2 core stats used for Skill Points. The rest are very useful. Con+Size = HP. Str+Size = Build and Bonus Damage. Str/Siz/Dex = Movement Speed. Dex = Starting Dodge. Edu = Personal Interest Skills and Know Roll (not Idea Roll). Int is almost always used for Occupation Skills and is the Idea Roll. Pow is starting Sanity, Magic Points, and Magic resistance. There's also Str checks, Con checks, Dex checks all the time.
So 1 out of 8 stats are very useful and you say only a few seem to serve a purpose...
@@SSkorkowsky sorry if i was unclear most of the stats i agree are useful to lesser or greater degree aside from appearance hence why i said dex was a god(ie a very very good)stat since its tied to your ability to dodge(passive bonus) or run faster(like 8 speed) and be nimble. strength was a good for dealing with physical obstacle's but hitting harder with a melee weapon is not as mechanically beneficial as using a semi-auto shot gun 4d6-8d6(12-24 damage average) vs 1d8+1d4 average 8 damage), con+size was s-tier(iea very very useful stat and important to have high since your its your physical survivability stat such a major wound recovery or disease resists, int i found was good at stat creation for frontloading helpful skills but a high int can be a double edge sword when it makes it easier for you to fail some of the rougher sanity rolls. a good edu stat means you can also front load useful skills.
a high pow i know is super important as well its your mental survivability stat. high pow=high sanity and magic points and also magic resistance. so to clarify i think at least 7 out of the 8 stats are useful.
Cool ending.
I recently got the 7th edition call of cthulhu rules is the investigator handbook mandatory or can I run/play without it?
It's not mandatory.
How do you determine the base percentage for different skills? Why did the character have 25% on handguns?
Base percentage is already set. You don't need to determine it.
Photography is great for gathering evidence
Nice inverted ankh there. :-D
What about point buy system for stats? I hate to roll random stats - it can easily conflict with the character concept.
There's a Quick Fire Method where you assign 40, 50, 50, 50, 60, 60, 70, & 80, among the 8 stats. There's also a Point Buy where you assign out 460 Points among the stats (within 15-90 range, and recommended minimum 40 for INT and SIZ)
@@SSkorkowsky thank you. But you got me curious, why would it recommend min 40 for SIZ? (with INT it is more understandable) What would happen if i opt for 30 SIZ?
If you don't mind being 3-4 feet tall (or maybe 5 feet tall, but skeletal thin), the mechanical effects would be reduced HP and possibly Damage Bonus.
@@SSkorkowsky ok, thanks. I did want to be about 5 feet tall (~1.55 m), and thin, but maybe not skeletal thin :) So i guess 40 SIZ is just about right.
Think of SIZ as both height and width. My natural instinct when I see a character that has like a SIZ 80 is to think "Wow, they must be very tall," but that's not the case. They could be average height or even short, but also broad. Once you begin looking at it that way, it becomes a lot easier (at least for me) to visualize 2 characters with the same SIZ as having very different builds.
Hey Seth, you mentioned an character generator a few times but I couldn't find a link in the description. Which generator are you referring to?
Do you mean the autocalculator? That's a character sheet that automatically calculates Hard and Extreme values, as well as Movement Rate, HP, Magic Points, and other values.
Here's the link for the 1920's Autocalculator sheet (they also have them for other settings like Modern, Gaslight, etc. ) The preview doesn't work if you open it in your browser, so you have to download it and open it. www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/CoC/Character%20Sheets/Character%20Sheet%20-%201920s%20-%20full%20autocalc%20-%20Call%20of%20Cthulhu%207th%20Ed.pdf
Seth Skorkowsky Thanks!
Watching this in the future, if you get the official character sheets from Chaosium now, Sanity is now no longer automatically derived and is manually entered. I wonder if your video had something to do with that.
What do you think about point-buy in CoC, and what rules would you use for that?
There is a point-buy method where you spend 460 points among the 8 stats. There's also one where you take 8 already set stats and assign them however you like. Personally, I prefer rolling.
I know I'm hella late, but could you explain how do you calculate cash& assets?
Is there a way to disable the autocalc? Or does anyone have a link to a sheet without autocalc?
Based on Jack Mallone’s portrait, I’d say it’s unlikely he makes it more than two steps out his front door.
My assumption is the creation guideline in the starter set is different.
Seth, thank you for these fantastic videos. You’ve been a great help!
One question please. During the stat rolling phase, you mentioned a ‘re-roll’. Did you mean, of one stat? Or a complete re-roll of all stats? If it’s the later, do you let players mix and match between number sets?
Thank you in advance!
I was referring to any dice that roll a "1" we re-roll it. But in addition, if the player has a certain character in mind, I do allow them to move some stat numbers around if they like. In extreme cases of a player just rolling a full-set of crap stats, I'll occasionally tell them to just scrap the whole set and start over. Ultimately, I do a lot of goofy methods.
Everything still caps at 90 outside of that single additional 1d10 at the very end.
Great. Thank you much.
please consider doing a review of pathfinder adventure path :strange aeons.
I'd like to see that too, but it would be a ton of work. Our group has about 180 hours in it and we are only halfway through book 4 of 6.
Do you have a Player's Folder, similar to what you have with the D&D games?
I do. I show one in my Player Folders vid. When I get to combat for Call of Cthulhu, I'll go in to the handouts.
I think you mentioned you use the options in Pulp Cthulhu to make characters because you typically play a more pulpy style in the 30's. Do you also do this when you play games in the 20's?
We almost always use it for the 20's.
@@SSkorkowsky I think this is exactly what we will do as well, no matter what era we play in.
@@SSkorkowsky You cannot combine the pulp character creation options with the optional career packages in the Investigator's Guide, can you? I was just curious. I do not think I'd ever try to.
No. The Pulp Archetype packages are what you use instead for Pulp Characters.
@@SSkorkowsky I am going to do this with my new group. We have had one session so far, where we played the first half of The Haunting. Would you suggest I do episodic adventures like you mentioned you have done a lot of in your vids or a mega campaign? I own Horror On the Orient Express, Masks of Nyarlathotep, and The Two-Headed Serpent. Do you recommend any of the mega campaigns?
I wish you lived in Ohio! I'd love to game with you. Your channel is one of my favorite gaming channels on CZcams!
Could you make an Alienist (Classical psychologist) build?
Yup. Alienist is listed as one of the Occupations, separate from more modern Psychologist/Psychoanalyst and Psychiatrist Occupations with different Occupational Skills listed for each (though many do overlap).