Shadowrun & Call of Cthulhu, any conversions... Options

[Ezra]

Hi...

I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, but here goes.

Do any of you out there have a Call of Cthulhu conversion for Shadowrun. I have already worked out the basics, and it looks pretty good, but I was wondering if anyone out there has their own way of doing this.

Thanks.

[nezumi]

Perhaps you'd like to be more clear on what you're trying to change over?

If you mean make a 1920's setting, well, that's a whole new thread, and not one I'll delve into unless I know you need it.

Monster statistics? If you're trying to kill Cthulu, you've got serious issues. They don't need statistics. I know there are some other minor creatures, like the crab monsters. We can spit out numbers if you need them.

Sanity monitor? That depends on the players. If they're good roleplayers, don't bother. If they aren't, the easiest method is just to steal the sanity monitor from the CoC game. Use willpower tests to resist further insanity.

Any other details you're struggling with?

[blakkie]

Maybe he means translating casting drain from damage based to insanity based?

There are some lesser Mythos minions and artifiacts that could use a few stats. Not to determine whether the PCs survive or not, but to determine if they end up just dead or worse off than that, and how exactly they end up there. :vegm:

[Wounded Ronin]

I think the huge problem with CoC right now is the hit points based system, as well as the wide range of hit probabilities with a shotgun at close range due to the d20 combat system. I think that you could do well to get rid of the 20 combat and damage systems and us the Shadowrun system for that instead. Some of the monsters might be easier to kill since they no longer have 300+ hit points, but I think that that's less of a blow to believability than "missing" a shotgun blast at a giant Mythos creature at close range because your beginning character only rolled a 13.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Aku]

i think a body og 300+ is a TAD excessive there, austere, but something, higher than a troll would probably suffice, if you have a reason to be rolling 300 dice for a soak roll, i think there are bigger issues with the game.

[Austere Emancipa...]

I don't really get why SR doesn't use really high physical attributes for those critters that could really use them. I mean, BOD 15 elephants? There's something wrong with a 120kg orc with a bit of ware being tougher than a 6500kg elephant. I keep wondering why RPGs where it's impossible for an unarmed human to beat an elephant to death are actually in the minority...

And aren't the big baddies in Cthulhu supposed to be closer to whale-size? I'd give this a triple-digit Body to say the least. I'd rather give them a double-digit Bulwark, but unfortunately they (the writers of R3) screwed that mechanic up so that a naval-class object can never throw a lot of dice for damage resistance -- it'll just ignore most attacks.

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Jun 19 2005, 06:15 PM

[Cynic project]

body shouldn't be the only thing you look at when dealing with toughness.Armour should also be a major factor.

Hell if you add equal amounts to streangth and body you will see that the higher the number the shorter the fight.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[fistandantilus4....]

if you counted an elephants hide as just a point or two of armor, then for a normal, unaugmented human like you would have today (say str 6) then yes, it hsould be pretty impossible to beat an elephant to death. But for example A) the wooly mammoth, stone age hunters brought them down with clubs and spears and stones. ex b) Rath the orc w/ muscle augmentation 4, superthyroid, and adrenal up cam have a str of around 15 (8 nat +4 muscle aug +1 super thy +2 adrenal pump ). Now yes, because that goes FAR above his normal str, that's some serious biostress, but give him cyber arms, and you get the same rough genaral idea. Than give the fragger a dikoted combat axe. You've got a guy that has around 3 times the str of a normal 'maxed' human today.

Sure the elephant would step on him and gore him and squish him, but my point is that it is possible to take down an elephant (although probably suicidal with melee weapons unless ou have a lot of suicidal buddies too).

Now for Cthulu, let's start with dragons. Around a 15 body on average. That's the average dragon's body. A tougher specimen could easily have a 22 body. Great Dragons get a +10 (on average, out of SR3), meaning that a tough specimen of GD (say Ghostwalker) could have around a 37 bodt (25*1.5=37 rounded down). So you could justifiably have Great Cthulu's doy in the high 30's to low 40's, assuming it's equal in stregnth to a Great Dragon.

Now in my games, I try to carry over as much possible into the SR world. I have characters that play D&D (appaerently SR went out of print, and no one noticed, but they play D&D 9th ed :D ), H.P. lovecraft was actually on to something. I have the beings of the Cthulu mythos as horrors, which works pretty well since they're locked away anyways (or asleep :sleepy: ). So the Rh'ley text exists, and is up there in the way of scary things with the Books of Harrow, and something like Greath Cthulu and H*stur (can't say his name ya' know) would be greater named horrors just below Verjigorm.

[Ancient History]

Back on subject, I did run a cthulupunk game of this sort once. No, the Dead Man's Book didn't come into play, though it could have.

[Grinder]

The main problem would be the conversion of sanity loss. When a character in CoC faces Cthulhu there's a very good chance the poor char snaps and went straight insane.
A average shadowrunner would simply fire his uzi and wonder why the fuck Cthulhu won't die...

[Austere Emancipa...]

[hyzmarca]

The sanity system isn't really necessary toan SR Cthulhu conversion, since is was primarilary a resopnse to Things that should not be offending the protagnist's 1920's sensabilities.

Lovecrafts stories were really about railing agaisnt the academic dogma that everthing can be classified, studied, and understood completely by the human mind. Once one accepts that this dogma is false and some things cannot be understood, sanity loss isn't much of an issue.

In SR the average person understands that there is wierd stuff out there. The average mage can delve into non-euclidean geometry without any mental distrubance. (The average mathimitition can, as well.)

There is also cultural desensitation to consider. If you watch enough Godzilla movies then an giant immoral squid monster rising from the depth isn't really that big of a deal.


As for stats, Cthulhu could be considered a type of unique spirit, one with a force so high that its Immunity to Normal Weapons translates into Immunity to Navel Weapons.

[Wounded Ronin]

The one thing I'll add at this point is that if you start giving the Mythos creatures hardened armor, you'll have to "fix" the SR weapon codes so that a M1 Garand (sport rifle) would be significantly better at punching through this armor than a "heavy pistol". I think that if you just raised the damage codes for the various types of guns but then compensated by having the monsters be all hardened and scary, it would leave you with good game balance.

Also, here is the best cthulu spoof ever: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/177154

[Austere Emancipa...]

[nezumi]

Silly question, WHY do you want stats for Cthulu? He's as big as an island, a creature from beyond our simple three dimensional world, having lived for billions of years, and is effectively a god. He has no stats. Don't bother trying to kill him, it's silly. Does he actually have stats in the CoC books? Because that's pretty silly too. When rolling for Cthulu, grab two full handfulls of dice for whatever the test in question is and roll those. He reroll all failures until they're successes.

[Wounded Ronin]

[hyzmarca]

Cthulhu can be defeated. He can probably be killed, as well. Remember, he is sleeping at the bottom of the ocean because his kind can't survive in our three deminsional universe without some magical alignment of the stars. One could possibly raise him from his sleep and keep him busy untill he suffocates from lack of whatever kind of magical energy he requires to survive.

There are also many beings far more powerful than Cthulhu and who could destroy him without even noticing that he was there. I recall hearing about a CoC game that ended with the death of Cthulhu when one of the PCs who had a bit too much magical knowledge and ability for his own good, summoned Azathoth to this plane in an act of desperation. None of the PCs survived, of course.



If you are going to make stats for Cthulhu you shouldl also have to make stats for sentient Great Dane who will eventuall face him and foil his plans.
http://www.mindspring.com/~ernestm/cthulhu/

http://www.inzenity.com/sdmythos/scoobydoo.htm

[Starglyte]

I'm surprised no has mentioned Cthulhupunk for Gurps yet. You could easily transalte many of the ideas in that book to Shadowrun.

[Wounded Ronin]

I loved how in the second link there was a "Harlem Globetrotters" card.

[Eldritch]

I've got a PDF on CoC I found ages past. It details a sanity system using the same system as damage. You have a 10 box moniter, L,S,M, D all listed in the same places as the standard damage moniter. CoC creatures have anextra attribute; Sanity Save. and you roll your will against it. Failure causes insanity. There re also rules for curing insanity.

I'm more than willing to pas it on to anyone that wants it. Just drop me an e-mail address.


Sample:

[FrostyNSO]

[nezumi]

[fistandantilus4....]