Some CthulhuTech Details, Good, Bad, and Ugly

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'll do the bad and ugly first.

I finished reading CthulhuTech. More crunch than I like, but that's a matter of taste. I like the world as a whole, and the elements some reviewers have issues with, well, I can see that, and these elements can be filed off. Heck, I might just cut the mecha if I ran it.

But, then I hit the two "scenarios" and the adventure seeds. Yuck! I have never hit such a dreadful combination of railroading and incomprehensibility as I have in the scenarios.

In one case, as far as I can tell, if the PCs attempt something I'd expect nearly every group of PCs to attempt, the GM is supposed to slam them into the ground, and there's nothing salvageable. I say "as far as I can tell" because I'm not actually sure. I know that the PCs are supposed to do nothing and do nothing and do nothing and then do one specific thing. I'm not sure if they're allowed to succeed at some other things they might attempt.

In another case, there's a mcguffin that is supposed to end up with a particular NPC, leading to a chase or a fight or both. I'm not sure that it's at all realistic for that NPC to get the mcguffin, but what's worse is that I cannot find any statement in the text about the NPC getting it. That is, the NPC is with the PCs when they go to find the mcguffin. They find it. There is nothing at that point specifying that they are expected to hand it over to the NPC. What if they don't? How the heck is the NPC supposed to get it? Worse yet, shortly before taking off with the mcguffin, the NPC winds up unconscious by authorial fiat. Okay. At this point, why are the authors assuming that the PCs won't take the mcguffin from the unconscious NPC for safe keeping (assuming they gave it to the NPC to begin with)? And, there are two other NPCs that are running off, maybe, unless they're stopped. Or one of them is running off and the other might be. And bad guys are moving in -- and, in fact, were already there, and -- wait. I've got no idea of the tactical situation here, and I don't think it's just because I've got a small head for tactics.

Okay. That's the bad and the ugly. Now, for some of the good.

I'm about halfway through Vade Mecum, the companion for CthulhuTech, aka the book where the stuff that didn't go in the main book (but probably should have) is. This includes para-psychic powers and spells.

One of the para-psychic powers is electrokinesis. And, the authors have thought about a lot of the fun ways to use it. And, they've got a nice progression here, rules that would have been extremely useful back when agrumer created what was basically an electrokinetic PC for my Cthulhupunk game.

One of the new spells is "Call Ancient Soul" aks "Access Past Lives". In most games, the way this works is that every time a PC does this, it's starting over from scratch -- the PC may or may not be able to access the same ability he or she accessed before.

Here, every time the spell is used, a PC gains access to one to three skills. These skills are written down. From now on, whenever the PC uses the spell successfully, he or she can automatically access those skills. Now, that's how it should work! The spell is kept from being game breaking by putting a limit of ten on the number of skills one can recall from one's previous lives. Sure, it's artificial, but I prefer this kludge to the other ones I've seen to date.

Some CthulhuTech Details, Good, Bad, and Ugly

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'll do the bad and ugly first.

I finished reading CthulhuTech. More crunch than I like, but that's a matter of taste. I like the world as a whole, and the elements some reviewers have issues with, well, I can see that, and these elements can be filed off. Heck, I might just cut the mecha if I ran it.

But, then I hit the two "scenarios" and the adventure seeds. Yuck! I have never hit such a dreadful combination of railroading and incomprehensibility as I have in the scenarios.

In one case, as far as I can tell, if the PCs attempt something I'd expect nearly every group of PCs to attempt, the GM is supposed to slam them into the ground, and there's nothing salvageable. I say "as far as I can tell" because I'm not actually sure. I know that the PCs are supposed to do nothing and do nothing and do nothing and then do one specific thing. I'm not sure if they're allowed to succeed at some other things they might attempt.

In another case, there's a mcguffin that is supposed to end up with a particular NPC, leading to a chase or a fight or both. I'm not sure that it's at all realistic for that NPC to get the mcguffin, but what's worse is that I cannot find any statement in the text about the NPC getting it. That is, the NPC is with the PCs when they go to find the mcguffin. They find it. There is nothing at that point specifying that they are expected to hand it over to the NPC. What if they don't? How the heck is the NPC supposed to get it? Worse yet, shortly before taking off with the mcguffin, the NPC winds up unconscious by authorial fiat. Okay. At this point, why are the authors assuming that the PCs won't take the mcguffin from the unconscious NPC for safe keeping (assuming they gave it to the NPC to begin with)? And, there are two other NPCs that are running off, maybe, unless they're stopped. Or one of them is running off and the other might be. And bad guys are moving in -- and, in fact, were already there, and -- wait. I've got no idea of the tactical situation here, and I don't think it's just because I've got a small head for tactics.

Okay. That's the bad and the ugly. Now, for some of the good.

I'm about halfway through Vade Mecum, the companion for CthulhuTech, aka the book where the stuff that didn't go in the main book (but probably should have) is. This includes para-psychic powers and spells.

One of the para-psychic powers is electrokinesis. And, the authors have thought about a lot of the fun ways to use it. And, they've got a nice progression here, rules that would have been extremely useful back when agrumer created what was basically an electrokinetic PC for my Cthulhupunk game.

One of the new spells is "Call Ancient Soul" aks "Access Past Lives". In most games, the way this works is that every time a PC does this, it's starting over from scratch -- the PC may or may not be able to access the same ability he or she accessed before.

Here, every time the spell is used, a PC gains access to one to three skills. These skills are written down. From now on, whenever the PC uses the spell successfully, he or she can automatically access those skills. Now, that's how it should work! The spell is kept from being game breaking by putting a limit of ten on the number of skills one can recall from one's previous lives. Sure, it's artificial, but I prefer this kludge to the other ones I've seen to date.