Non-Euclidean Designs
June 6th, 2011
Welcome to Mythos Week, everyone. For those of you who haven't been awakened to the true nature of the universe and all the eldritch horrors which lie just beyond the understanding of mortal man, when someone in the gaming industry says "mythos," especially if it's with a capital "M," they're almost certainly referring to one thing: the Cthulhu mythos, also known as the Lovecraft mythos, and, no doubt, by other, darker names which man was not meant to speak.
Later in the week, you'll see lots of Lovecraftian horrors and eldritch abominations that you can use in your 3.5/Pathfinder (or, on Thursday, 4th edition) games. Today, however, is going to take a slightly different bent, because I don't really have that much to say about designing eldritch horrors. I suppose I could talk about how many tentacles is too many, and what the sweet-spot is as far as eye quantity (and location), but I wouldn't really know what I was talking about. Besides, I've done plenty of talking about eldritch horrors in the past, and I've also done some discussion about running horror games (like here and here). There's not a whole lot of mythos design for me to cover, just at the moment.
So instead I'm going to write about a topic only slightly removed from the mythos itself: the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, and some thoughts about the design choices made in that game's creation. For those of you not familiar with the game, it's put out by a company called Chaosium (or, at least, it was the last time I checked. I assume it still is), and is a pretty fun roleplaying game which endeavors to capture the feel and style of a Lovecraft story (it occurs to me that some of you may not know who or what Lovecraft is, and are getting very confused right about now. I recommend taking the time you would use to read this article and instead reading up on Mr. Lovecraft, then maybe checking out one or two of his short stories. Have fun. Be sure to stop by next week).
There are three basic topics that strike me about the Call of Cthulhu system: the combat system, the overall lethality of the game, and the skill system. Each of these has some pluses and some minuses (in this designer's opinion, at any rate), which I'll take a little time to examine with you. Before we get started, though, I just want to preface this by saying that I really enjoy the game, and recommend giving it a try, especially if you can get your hands on a good pre-made adventure for it (I'm partial to Horror on the Orient Express).
The Combat System: Fast Guns and Faster Dodges
One of the things I really like about the combat system is the way they handle guns, and how much faster it is to fire a gun than, say, throw a punch. In Call of Cthulhu, everyone with a gun gets to shoot first. Then, everyone else gets to act, and, with most guns, the gun-wielders get to shoot again. Some guns even allow a third shot to be fired after everyone else's actions are over. This seems really powerful, and it is: after all, guns are much more impressive weapons than broken bottles and fists. Still, it's a lot less powerful than it could have been: the gun could have gotten all of its shots off at once, which would make it very difficult indeed for anyone to compete with a gun that fires three shots per round. By spreading it out, not only does it feel more realistic (whether it is or isn't actually more realistic is beside the point), and helps to mitigate the overwhelming power of the tommy gun.
Another thing that really stands out about the Call of Cthulhu combat system is the way it lets you dodge attacks. There is no "AC," or anything like it, in Call of Cthulhu. Like all rolls in Call of Cthulhu, you have a specific number you need to roll under, and if you do, you hit, and if you don't, you miss. I'll talk more about that system below. The important thing here is, there's very little the average character can do to affect whether or not he gets hit by things. To make up for that, they're able to block and dodge. If I remember correctly, you can't do much on a turn where you're dodging, except maybe move a little, but it's possible you get one free dodge per round. Either way, this works the same as the attack: you make your dodge roll, and if you roll under it, the attack is completely negated.
Though this is no doubt a useful tool, considering the high lethality of the game (again, more below), players who cultivate particularly high dodge scores can be a source of extreme frustration for Keepers (that's the Call of Cthulhu term for Dungeon Master: "Keeper of Arcane Lore"), as they find themselves upset that none of the eldritch monsters they throw at the character form any kind of threat, as the character just has to roll below a certain percentile to completely avoid the danger. Though I'm all for raising the life-expectancy of Call of Cthulhu characters, the dodge system seems to accomplish little more than allowing investigators to completely negate the threat many monsters pose.
Lethality: All Roads Lead to Nowhere
Fear is an important part of a horror game, and Call of Cthulhu is more or less the quintessential, go-to, horror RPG. Understandably, then, there's a lot of risk in Call of Cthulhu. It isn't like Dungeons and Dragons, where your character is eventually able to spit in the eyes of gods more or less with impunity, and eat dragons for breakfast four or five days out of the week. Instead, you never really get any tougher, and an attack that could kill you at the beginning of the game will still be able to kill you at the end, even if you've improved a whole lot in the meantime. And, of course, as a horror game about eldritch monsters beyond mortal comprehension, you spend most of the game horribly outmatched by your foes, who are usually much larger and meaner and have extra appendages. If that doesn't sound dangerous enough, your sanity is slowly being eroded with basically everything you see, which sends you on a downward spiral towards a very different kind of character death.
There are obviously benefits to this system, and knowing that a wrong step can put your character in real jeopardy is a great way to foster that horror feel that can be so hard to summon up around the kitchen table with your friends. On the other hand, I think that Call of Cthulhu may have taken that theme a little too far. As those of you who've actually read some Lovecraft stories know, the investigator doesn't die or go insane until the end of the story. There's a reason for that: it's not very good storytelling to have your main characters being replaced every 5 minutes because each new eldritch horror eats one. This sort of revolving door where bad guys kill in one hit and never look back is a great way to kill that sense of horror by keeping players from getting too attached to their characters. As far as sanity…I like the phobias and disorders that the system encourages, but, in the same vein as before, it seems like a poor idea to kill a character off just because he runs out of sanity points.
The Skill System: Character Growth and Certain Success
Call of Cthulhu uses a d% to resolve more or less every action in the game. Everything you might want to do is tied to a skill of some kind (Guns, Driving, Biology, etc.), and you have a score in that skill somewhere between 0 and 99. In order to find out if you succeed, you roll the d%, and if it's below your score, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. In the abstract, this system isn't a bad one: it's certainly very simple. At the same time, it means that, for example, it's equally easy to shoot a practice dummy as it is to shoot a ducking, weaving target, and comprehending the theory of evolution is the same as explaining which parts of which chromosomes produce what genetic effects. Worse still, canny investigators can sink all their points into a handful of key skills, ensuring a 99% success rate at, say, spotting clues or firing guns (not that guns are always that effective against mythos monsters), or the like.
In theory, the Keeper can add or subtract an amount to the roll or the score for exceptionally hard or easy tasks, to help mitigate that effect, but there are a few problems with that theory. For one, the game doesn't provide that much rules support for what kinds of difficulty would result in what kinds of percentages. More importantly, however, when the game doesn't come with "DCs," and you've been playing under the impression that any roll under your score is a success, you really feel cheated when you roll under your score and still fail anyway. The system breeds a sort of sense of entitlement, and adjusting those percentages always seems to lead to hurt feelings, or at least a general sense of disgruntlement.
On the other hand, there are some things about the system that I really like: specifically, the way in which skill values increase. Call of Cthulhu doesn't use experience, and you don't gain levels as you play. Instead, whenever you succeed on a skill (sometimes it has to be suitably impressive; see your Keeper of Arcane Lore for more information) you get to mark the skill for improvement, and, at the end of the adventure (or some other specific time), make a special d% roll, where you have to roll over your rank in the skill. If you succeed, you add 1d10 to the skill, effectively improving them through use. This system is fun, flavorful, encourages players to use lots of different skills, and keeps higher-ranking skills from spiraling out of control. If Necromancers of the Northwest ever winds up making its own RPG, believe me when I say it will use a similar method of skill advancement.
That's all for today. Enjoy the rest of the week, and try not to get eaten by eldritch horrors. Join me next week, when I'll be discussing the interplay between mechanics and flavor. In the meantime, keep your elder signs close, and your necronomicons closer.