#Call of Cthulhu 1920s

[oldschoolfrp]

It's just an old basement. Quit complaining and have a quick look around down there. (Janet Aulisio, Call of Cthulhu supplement Mansions of Madness, Chaosium, 1990)

#Call of Cthulhu #Janet Aulisio #Mansions of Madness #horror #pulp adventure #pulp #pulp horror #body horror #Call of Cthulhu 1920s #basement #horror gaming #horror RPG

[anim-ttrpgs]

Example of Investigative Gameplay in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Here is the recently rewritten and updated example of investigative gameplay from the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook.

Here’s a simple example of an investigative scene featuring Investigation Rolls, Full Successes, Partial Successes, Failures, Investigation Points, and the Eureka! Mechanic. In this example, 1920s detectives Nick Morgan and Hector Law, played by players Addison and Ash respectively, are on the trail of a gang of bank robbers, and have found the office where one suspect works as a dock supervisor. On their way up, they can hear two voices from within the room and some sounds of shuffling. They walk in, but find only the suspect’s secretary, Hugo, standing there awkwardly. The Narrator also describes that the office is a small room without much furnishings. There is an open window facing back towards town. There is a desk with several papers on it, and a marble paperweight, but an overturned wine bottle has soaked them. Wine is dripping off the corner of the desk to the floor.

[off to the side in final formatting] In an actual session, there should always be more description than just the points of interest, but for this example we are cutting flavor and extraneous detail for the sake of being concise and clear. It’s already multiple pages long.

It’s plain to see that the suspect tried to make an escape, but to where, they don’t know. Law’s player, Ash, decides that Law is going to play it cool and just ask where the suspect went. His Charm skill is better than his Threaten anyway.

At the same time, Morgan moves straight to the window, thinking that the suspect might have fled that way, and there might still be time to catch a glimpse of him getting away.

Politely stopping the secretary from intercepting Morgan, Law tells Hugo “Hello, we’re here to talk to [the suspect], and we thought he was in here just now. Can you tell us where to find him?”

Ash rolls the dice, 2D6 + Law’s Charm, which is +1. The first die lands on 2, the second lands on 3, and adding that with the skill modifier makes it a total of 6. (2+3+1=6) Uh oh, not good, a 6 is a Failure. Law isn’t smooth enough to get Hugo to rat out his boss just like that.

The Narrator tells the players that Hugo just kinda sweatily twiddles his thumbs a bit before saying “He, um, is out of the office right now.” That isn’t very helpful, they could already plainly see that. At the very least, from the Failure, Law gains 3 Investigation Points. He already had 10 from all the investigation that led them to this office, so now he has 13/15. He’s very close to a Eureka!

Ash writes down in her notes “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” A Eureka! Point might be able to be used on that later.

Meanwhile, at the window, Morgan looks out and his player, Addison, asks what he sees. The Narrator says that Morgan sees a small lot of fresh mud below the window between the office and the rest of town.

Addison asks if Morgan sees any footprints in that mud.

The Narrator says no, Morgan sees no footprints.

Neither Addison nor Morgan need any sort of roll to figure out that if the suspect had hopped through that window and ran through the field, there should be a fresh trail of footprints there. He can’t have gone this way. So where did he go?

Note that the Narrator did not outright mention the lack of footprints until Addison asked.

Now back to Law. Ash asks if Law can get a look at those papers on the desk. The Narrator tells her that he can, but Hugo is going to try and stop him, saying “No no, that’s confidential customer shipping information.”

Ash decides that Law is going to try his Charm again to talk past Hugo. She rolls the dice as Law says “Relax, I just can’t stand to see wine go to waste like that.” He moves past Hugo to set the bottle back upright.

The 2D6 roll is a 6 and a 5, plus 1 from Charm, but the Narrator interjects. He says that Law isn’t just going to the desk to clean up, he’s trying to get a look at those papers. And plus, earlier in the adventure, Ash said that Law doesn’t drink wine, he prefers whisky, which means he’s outright lying about the wine. That means that this is more a job for the Manipulate skill than the Charm skill.

[off to side in final formatting] The Narrator is not saying this to punish, talk down to, or otherwise antagonize Ash, it is just his job to make sure that all the mechanics are correctly applied to the actions of the story.

“Hm, that’s right, I did say that.” Ash says. “Then we’ll use his Manipulate skill, since he’s definitely lying. He hates wine.”

Law’s Manipulate skill is -1 instead of +1, making the roll 6+5-1=10. Luckily, a 10 is still a Full Success.

Hugo mumbles and doesn’t move any further to get in Law’s way. He can’t see a way to stop Law without looking more suspicious than he already is. Law sets the wine bottle upright.

Also, with a Full Success, Law gains 1 Investigation Point, giving him 14/15.

Ash says “Now that Law’s gotten close to the desk, he’s going to try and look at those papers. That would be Paperwork, right?” The Narrator confirms, it would be a Paperwork roll.

While Ash check’s Law’s character sheet to remind herself what his Paperwork skill is, Addison says that Morgan is going to really study Hugo. Does he look like he’s hiding anything else? Addison makes a Social Cues roll for Morgan, whose Social Cues skill is +2. (4+3+2=9)

A 9 is a Partial Success. Morgan gains 2 Investigation Points for himself, and the Narrator says that Hugo definitely looks supremely nervous, he has his fingers crossed, and his eyes darting around the room, which might mean that he’s hoping beyond hope that the investigators won’t notice something else. Exactly what, though, Morgan can’t guess with only a Partial Success.

Now Ash makes the Paperwork roll for Law. His Paperwork is +1. (3+3+1=7).

A Partial Success. The Narrator says that he’s reading the paper upside-down, so it’s hard to make out exactly what it says, but he can at least see that it appears to be a spreadsheet dividing $10,000 between four people, whose names are listed. Linda, Terry, Marcus, and “Me.” When Law tries to turn the paper around, however, it disintegrates, completely ruined by the wine. Darn.

Ash checks her notes from the previous session. “$10,000 is how much money was stolen from the bank, so Law thinks this must be the names of the other robbers. Oh, also, he just got a Eureka! Point.”

That’s true, the Partial Success on an investigation roll gave Law 2 Investigation Points, taking him from 14 to 15. Ash erases all but one of the check marks on the investigation Point Bar on Law’s character sheet. Normally, she would erase them all, but the extra leftover Investigation Point carries over towards Law’s next Eureka!.

Law could save this Eureka! Point for something later, but Ash thinks it would be most helpful if he had his Eureka! moment right now.

Ash points to her sheet where she wrote “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” and says she wants Law to retroactively succeed at this failed investigation roll, and get the information that he would’ve gotten if he had done a better job questioning Hugo.

The Narrator nods and says that when Law looks back at Hugo, he notices that the secretary’s eyes are fixed on something near Law’s feet for just a moment, before darting away. When Law looks down at the floor, he sees that the wine is pooling weirdly just under the desk, and seems to be disappearing into a small crack there....

The Narrator doesn’t say any more, he doesn’t need to.

Ash says that Law crouches down and starts to push the desk aside. She asks if he needs an Athletics roll for this, and the Narrator says no, the desk isn’t that heavy. Even if the desk was that heavy, an Athletics roll would probably not need to be made, because a Failure would not add anything interesting to the scene. If there were mobsters about to break down the door and Hector was trying to push the desk around to make a barricade, then would be a good time for the Narrator to call for an Athletics roll, because there are stakes, and so a success or failure would result in the something very different happening in the scene.

What the Narrator does confirm, however, is that when Law pushes the desk back, he sees a small trap door, but suddenly Hugo grabs the marble paperweight off the desk and goes to smash Law’s head with it!

What will happen next?! Read the exciting conclusion in [melee combat example].

You can have investigations like this by either downloading the free shareware rulebook from our website or getting the full version for $5 on our Patreon.

Also, behind the scenes, this example of gameplay is based on the actual gameplay of our group using Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy to play the Call of Cthuhlu adventure module "A Mother's Love", written by Seth Skorkowsky.

#eureka: investigative urban fantasy #eureka #example of play #gameplay #coc #call of cthulhu #detective #1920s #tabletop #roleplaying #indie rpg #rpg #dnd #ttrpg #indiegames #indie game #indie ttrpgs #indie ttrpg #indie games #indie designer #ttrpg tumblr #ttrpg character #ttrpg community #ttrpg creator #ttrpg campaign

[hemlocksgrove]

mmm wiggling them

#call of cthulhu #my art #1920s #friends ocs #pixel art

[gwenthebard]

Are you a fan of Historical Fashion?

Are you looking to make sure your Call of Cthulhu character is in the style of the day?

Do you want a primer for 1920s fashion?

You should check out my Miskatonic Repository projects- The Bloodmoon Guide to Fashion: 1920s

#historical fashion #1920s #call of cthulhu #miskatonic repository

[plastiktubes]

Finally made a call of cthulhu investigator despite me having no friends to play it with and a very basic understanding of the system

#low roll good high roll bad #plastik art #oc #ocs #art #digital art #character design #call of cthulhu #horror #eldritch horror #ttrpg #rpg #lovecraft #hp lovecraft #cosmic horror #1920s

[georgiacooked]

An old full-body painting of my Call Of Cthulhu PC, Edward Merrick. A man permanently having The Worst Day.

#art #artists on tumblr #TTRPG #ttrpg art #ttrpg character #digital art #character design #1920s #full body painting #OC #horror art #call of cthulhu #Q

[amartworks]

A scene from a recent session of Call of Cthulhu RPG where some delicious dynamics are being written alongside good friends.

#call of cthulhu #ttrpg #film noir #1920s #chaosium #oc #do i name the other characters in case they pop up. uuh #samuel carmelo #isaac wilkinson #jefferson #clementine moore #jeff doesnt have a surname. he wasn't expected to survive this long #mine

[unicornarts]

Another ttrpg campaign, another set of illustrations for my friends 💕. Versions of the illustrations without the green overlay are below the cut.

This time our game is a cosmic horror based off the Cthulhu Mythos & is set in 1924, so I had to do quite a bit of research for the illustrations. It was fun though! The makeup may be a little inaccurate because they didn't really wear eyeshadow during the day, but it's my art & I wanted to give the ones that are fashion icons more makeup.

And before anyone says anything, the fourth illustration doesn't have eye shines on purpose. That player had to drop out of the game for health reasons, so her character got (consensually) killed off.

#artists on tumblr #digital art #character illustration #digital illustration #ttrpg character #ttrpg homebrew #1920s oc #1920s #ttrpg art #ttrpg illustration #call of cthulhu #my art

[uhrikanit-art]

A new character for a Call of Cthulhu one shot. Avangarda Aleksandrovna Dyatlov alias Dagmar Dvorak, a soviet spy in 1920’s Boston.

#my art #ttrpg art #ttrpg #character portrait #call of cthulhu #spy #queer #1920s

[lavampira]

CALL OF CTHULHU ⟣ SATURNINE CHALICE

LON LAURIER. miskatonic university alum, curator at the providence museum of natural history and curiosities, and occult hobbyist.

#vibey moodboard for my character bc he’s been on my brain since our first session <3 #the man’s already so awk but he got rendered useless by a shadow and grotesque feet under a car that nobody else has been seeing. rip king #dani edits things #oc: lon laurier #grocery trip gone wrong #call of cthulhu #call of cthulhu oc #coc oc #1920s ttrpg

[boldlydeck]

Lovecraft 1920s AU Professor Hakeev. PhD in Astronomy and Occult Studies. Probably both a murderer and a spy. Sacrificed his students, assistants, academic enemies, and random people to summon unknown creatures.

I draw this because https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/boldlydeck/705043481079447552 it keeps haunting me for night

Reference used.

#star trek #fan art #sto #star trek online #1920s #call of cthulhu #hp lovecraft #miskatonic #colonel hakeev #hakeev #i have to make this #guy just has the energy

[oldschoolfrp]

On the plus side there are no view limits in here (The Asylum & Other Tales, seven adventures in the 1920s for Call of Cthulhu, with Tom Sullivan's cover "Proto-Shoggoth and Victim", Chaosium, 1983)

#Call of Cthulhu #Tom Sullivan #horror #The Asylum & Other Tales #shoggoth #Chaosium #proto shoggoth #horror gaming #1920s #pulp adventure

[sfaira]

Look at these amazing photos I got from a Call of Cthulhu themed photoshoot with friends! @nma-nekronauta took them and then Rybrari did the work to make them look truly old looking. These are not all of course, and there will be more, especially if @silesianna and @sardolutra decide to post theirs

#call of cthulhu #rybrari #1920s #stylised #photography #dark #sardolutra #silesianna #nma-nekronauta #photoshoot

[hemlocksgrove]

Gave pixel art a try, its pretty fun stuff. Under the cut is the sprite sheet!

#my art #artists on tumblr #call of cthulhu #call of cthulhu oc #pixel art #animation #coc #my ocs #Shrike #1920s ocs #1920s #oc-tober #bweirdOCtober

[feastofchildermass]

My friends and I have been playing Masks of Nyarlathotep and I was absolutely inspired to draw some 1920s investigators. I'm very fond of this squad and I love how well we've all gelled as a group.

l-r Perry Astor, Sergeant Pranit Singh Dhillon, Dr Leonard Winston, Françoise Pelletier and Edith Collins.

#masks of nyarlathotep #call of cthulhu #ttrpg art #1920s style #perry astor #pranit singh dhillon #leonard winston #francoise pelletier #edith collins #player party #lovecrafian #hp lovecraft #cthulhu mythos

[honourablejester]

Call of Cthulhu Character Concept: 1920s Funeral Home Dreamer

Because I just really wanted to try making a CoC investigator. I’m not sure what I intended to make initially, but browsing the occupations list gave me ‘undertaker’, and then I decided to roll for characteristics initially (I later added points on so the total would equal 460, as if for point buy), and that gave me a starting Appearance of 20, which is just above ‘ugly, possibly disfigured due to injury or at birth’, which gave me a bit of a starting seed. Then I was browsing the period names suggestion list, and saw ‘Asenath’, which I’d never heard before, and looked that up. And it’s a biblical name, but an Egyptian figure, so the name means ‘dedicated to the goddess Neith’. Which, in a Cthulhu setting, was … interesting.

So. Asenath Webber, a 34 year old assistant at her family’s funeral home in Arkham, Massachusetts, who has a troubled relationship with her brother since he permanently scarred her with embalming chemicals in an ‘accident’ as kids, and whose beloved uncle helped foster her education and interest in literature, history, and just a bit of the occult. Heh.

Call of Cthulhu Character Concept: Asenath Webber

Name: Asenath Webber

Occupation: Embalmer’s Assistant/Hearse Driver (Undertaker)

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Birthplace/Place of Residence: Arkham, Massachusetts.

Characteristics:

Strength 50, Constitution 80, Dexterity 60, Intelligence 50, Size 50, Power 70, Appearance 20, Education 80

(I initially rolled, then brought them up to total 460 as if for point buy (my original rolled total was 435), but the initial rolls are why her appearance is in the toilet. I could have brought that up, but I figured let’s roll with it)

Hit Points: 13

Magic Points: 14

Luck: 55

Sanity: 65

Move: 8

Skills Above Base:

Brawl 35%, Drive Auto 60%, Dodge 30%, First Aid 35%, History 65%, Intimidate 50%, Language (Own, English) 80%, Language (Other, Ancient Egyptian) 11%, Library Use 50%, Occult 65%, Psychology 40%, Science (Biology) 45%, Science (Chemistry) 51%, Spot Hidden 50%

Credit Rating: 20

Wealth: Average, Spending Level $10, Cash $40 ($10 on her, $30 glove box of the hearse), Assets $1000 (rented apartment ($10/wk rent), used car ($300), refrigerator ($49))

I did look up 1920s hearses to see if there was any option for the hearse to be the part of the family business she owned, but hearses are very expensive, so not a chance. She probably does have access to it, if she wants to alienate her family altogether, but I decided she’d have her own, used but in good condition, 1920 Chevvy Coupe that she keeps at Jo’s so the family don’t know about it. She keeps it mostly for the promise that when things with her brother finally degrade past saving, she can just bug out in her own car, and then the world will be her oyster.

Personal Description: A short, compact woman with bland features once you get past the shiny, twisted burn scar on her face. She smells faintly of chemicals, and tends to be faintly off-putting at the best of times. She’s usually found in driver’s coveralls or men’s clothing, which her family tolerate because she’s generally just not seen, at least not attached to the business.

Ideology & Beliefs: There are forces at work in the world, both evil and spiritual. When you work with the dead, you realise quickly that the body is a frail, useless, damaged thing. There must be more, a breath of some vaster thing, that makes us what we are.

Significant People: Eldridge Webber, her brother, with whom she has a tense relationship, to put it mildly. Edridge is the ‘& Son’ of the Webber & Son funeral home, and will inherit it once their father dies, and has made no bones about the fact that he’ll cut her loose to survive on her own once that happens. He’s also the cause of the scarring on her face, an ‘accident’ when he was 12 and she was 8, and he’d dared her to venture into the embalming room with him. She firmly believes that if her father wasn’t as traditional and had even once considered allowing a female to inherit the business, her brother would have arranged for a much more permanent ‘accident’ for her. Eldridge focuses on the business and glad-handing clients side of the funeral home, while their father still does most of the embalming, so she’s mostly given odd jobs such as driving the hearse and assisting their father in the embalming rooms. She’s almost fine with the knowledge that as soon as the business belongs to her brother, she’ll be out on her ear.

Barnabas Webber, her uncle, who taught her and sponsored her interests despite the ire from the rest of her family. He’s the one who taught her to drive, and the one who sponsored her education so she could get her English and History degree. Now that he’s dead, relations between her and the rest of her family have cooled significantly, not that they were good to start with. He used to be the second Webber in ‘Webber, Webber & Son’, but when he died, Josiah Webber, her father, simply removed that part of the name.

Josephine Razner, a friend from college and fellow spiritualist who shares Asenath’s fascination with history and the occult. Despite Asenath’s generally off-putting demeanour, Jo was delighted by her unusual name, and Asenath’s knowledge of its origins, and they hit it off. Jo is constantly encouraging her to leave the family business altogether and strike out on her own before Eldridge forces the issue for her, but Asenath still feels that would be disloyal to the family as a whole.

Roland Bleeker, a shady sort who has dealings with her brother, and who Asenath is 90% certain is a criminal of some stripe. Both he and Eldridge have attempted several times to get Asenath to do ‘deliveries’ in the hearse that are outside of business hours, and she’s refused them, which has done her relationship with Eldridge no favours either.

Meaningful Locations: Webber & Sons Funeral Home, Arkham. The center around which her world has revolved for almost her entire life, the cause of her worst scars, and the link to her most beloved person, her deceased Uncle Barnabas.

Secondarily, Miskatonic University, the site of some of the happiest times of her life, and the place she met Jo.

Treasured Possessions: A small illustrated copy of Lord Dunsany’s ‘Gods of Pegana’, with a handwritten note on the inside cover from Uncle Barnabas: ‘Dream all the things, dear one. Never stop. Uncle B.’ *(Key Backstory Connection)

Traits: Loyal. Not a lot of people are kind to Asenath, so she will move heaven and earth for the ones that are. She loved Uncle Barnabas with her entire body and soul, and she probably would kill people (or at least find some way to make bodies vanish) for Jo. She’s also stubborn and inclined to stick to her guns in general.

Injuries & Scars: Old chemical burn scars on her right cheek and jaw, deforming her mouth slightly, from an ‘accident’ as a child with the embalming chemicals.

History: From nearly the moment she was born, Asenath Webber’s life has been tied up in the family business, the prosperous Webber & Son funeral home. A dreamy, bookish, stubborn child, she wasn’t popular with most of her family, save only her mother (until her untimely death when Asenath was four) and her Uncle Barnabas, who she utterly adored and has missed terribly these last seven years since his death. After a childhood incident involving her brother left her with permanent scars from chemical burns on her face, she was shunted into the background of family life, away from the public. As a teenager, she had started training as an embalmer, at her father’s side, but her uncle managed to secure a college education for her at Miskatonic University, arguing that it would only enhance the family’s reputation to be able to send her. After her brother, of course, who studied accounting and finance, as befit the heir to the business. Asenath had other interests, however, and a fanciful streak, so her studies were in literature and history. Her own name, and lifelong experience with death, bodies, and the spirituality around them, had also inclined her to more … esoteric studies, and through these she met her dear friend Josephine Razner.

Once she had her degree, however, duty demanded that she return to the funeral home and put her back into the family business. She couldn’t be publicly seen, of course, she was off-putting and inclined to scare off clients, but she found roles as assistant embalmer and, through her talent with automobiles, driver of the funeral home’s hearse. After the death of her uncle, however, and her increasingly strained relationship with her brother as their father gets frailer and the time of his inheritance gets palpably closer, Asenath is looking more and more for a way out before she’s thrown out.

#call of cthulhu #CoC #character concepts #1920s #investigators #undertakers