Combat

I figure it is time to cover combat and how it works. Keep in mind, this is a game originally written in 1983 (or about there) so the combat is reflective of that time in gaming, and of the Horror genre.

Combat happens in rounds. The order of attack is as follows (assuming no one is surprised):

Each subcategory goes in order of Dexterity from highest to lowest. So someone with 18 Dex acts before a character with10 Dex.

1st - All firearms that are readied and aimed fire.
2nd - All skills and casting
3rd - All hand-to-hand actions, firearms that needed to be drawn (or rifles shouldered), and those who are firing for the second time in a round (some guns can fire up to three times a round)
4th - Guns that fire a third time

Knockout attacks can be made with Fist, Headbutt, Grapple, or blunt objects.

Parry - Hand-to-hand attacks can be parried. Long swords, like foils and rapiers can parry and attack in the same round. Fist and Kick can count as an attack and a parry. Shotguns and rifles can parry or attack in a round, but not both. Guns used this way take damage from a parry and can be destroyed.

You cannot parry against a weapon without a weapon. But you can grapple, and then in the next action, disarm the opponent.

Impales - Like the DnD critical, when you impale someone you do more damage. Only pointy weapons and bullets can impale. If you roll less than 20% of your skill in a weapon, you achieve an impale. Impales with knives mean the item is stuck in the defender and must be pulled out next round - this requires a successful combat skill roll.

Grapple - When you grapple with someone you roll your grapple skill against the target's grapple, if you succeed, you may then do one of several things in the next round.

• Knock the target down (automatic success)
• immobilize the target (Str vs Str and then indefinitely immobile)
• Disarm the target with a second grapple roll
• Damage the target with 1d6 on a second grapple roll
  

Damage - For our game, you fall unconscious at Zero, you die at -5. You bleed 1 pt per round starting at Zero.

First Aid and Medicine skills - can head 1d3 on each wound. So if you are hit twice, you can have first aid done twice on you.

If you are treated by someone with the Medicine skill, you gain 2d3 per week.

Sanity

In CoC your sanity is as important as your Hit Points -- perhaps more important. As HP can be healed over time, your sanity erodes and can only be gained back slowly and through difficult means. Like XP in DnD, sanity is granted as a bonus for good work - vanquishing evil gives you the sense that your struggle against the unknown can be won and with it piece of mind. Your sanity can also increase with Psychiatric care and drugs or by increasing your POW. (there is a third way, but we'll talk about that later)

Your sanity begins at 5x your Power. As the game progresses, different things can cause this to erode. Unseemly sights (though some professions are immune to the sight of blood or corpses) , ill-gotten knowledge, and shocking events all take their toll.

There is a skill called Cthulhu Mythos, which represents your knowledge of the greater mysteries in the universe. All characters begin with 00 Mythos. These mysteries are so terrible they have an effect on your sanity. To represent this, your total sanity can never be greater than 99 minus your Cthulhu Mythos skill. (For example: if you have a CM skill of 35, your sanity cannot be greater than 65)

When something horrible happens you will be asked to make a Sanity Check. You must roll a % roll under your current Sanity or you have failed. When you fail, you lose sanity - usually a random amount based on how horrifying the event. If you lose 5 sanity points from a single roll, you go temporarily insane for 1d10+4 rounds. This can be anything from a fainting spell to homicidal mania.

If you lose 1/5 of your current sanity in a game hour, you go indefinitely insane. This insanity lasts 1d6 months. Some insanity can be functional, like amnesia or claustrophobia, but it should be debilitating. Some investigators when they have lost this much sanity and are dangerously low will check themselves into a sanatorium for treatment.

If you reach Zero sanity points. Game over. You are permanently insane and non-functioning. A blathering idiot who needs a straight-jacket. This is the death of the mind and it is as dangerous as the death of the body.

In DnD, when you have 1 hp left, you act like it: a roleplayed cough, frail movements, or pain. You may also hang back if the action is in full swing -- because one wrong move means you're dead. Sanity in CoC should be treated no differently. People with low sanity are on the verge with frayed nerves. They may also protect themselves from having to bear more shock by letting their more stable compatriots do the dirty work.

Weapons

There may come a time when your character wants to do some damage. Below is a list of possible weapons. Only choose a weapon which is common in your era (1920). Keep in mind that concealed weapons are illegal, though carrying a rifle in your trunk would not be. Firefights and violence can draw attention, this is not a medieval frontier.

You also have to think of where you will put it. If you don't own a car or have a home, a personal arsenal is going to be out of the question.

However, I will not begrudge your choice of weapon. There are concealed weapon permits for Gumshoes and other registered lawmen. It is also entirely possible that your character, after having some experience under his belt will decide to carry protection in the future.

http://members.toast.net/jschultz/weapons.jpg

Character Backstory

Start thinking about a character idea. You don't need to know any rules at this point, just figure it out from a story standpoint. Here is a list of possible occupations: http://members.toast.net/jschultz/occupations.jpg

Here's a few hints - CoC depends on investigating strange occurrences like DnD depends on 'dungeon exploration'. So, just like you can create a fluffy bard or a non-combat character in DnD - you can make a non-investigator type for CoC - but it does make it a bit harder to play. Be sure to give yourself a little bit of a hook for why you would go gallivanting in haunted houses or investigate the strange murder of a friend, etc. For instance, you could be a Zoo Keeper... but it'd be a lot easier if you were a Zoo Keeper who wanted to find proof of Big Foot.

Obviously I like an RP heavy game, so you don't have to bend over backwards to make him/her Cthulhu friendly -- I'm more excited about interesting than I am about traditional.

Second - come up with 1 or 2 contacts. They don't have to be anything detailed or concrete. These are basically fall back characters. CoC can be deadly, and with its insanity rules, some characters may have to sit out for a few months game time or become non-adventuring support characters. When this happens we will roll up the fallback character who will be set to pick up where your last character ended. These contacts also may come in to play giving you leads in your investigations. For instance, if you were a photographer for the Daily Bugle, your editor and an investigative reporter on the paper may be good contacts.

Third. (Whew... I get long winded.) This is 1920. So no computer hackers or air conditioner salesmen. Prohibition and Gangsters. Flappers and Silent Movies. Communist Scares and pre-Great Depression excess. Let me know if you have any questions.