MUP Live Play- No Man's Land

[Dr. Gerard]

Good first episode. Sanity and War really fit together. On the subject of "Meat-Grinders", not really a fan. As the guy running the game, not knowing if you'll finish the story that you've prepared/trying to tell stinks and as a player who never has an attachment to your character kind of defeats the purpose of playing. They're entertaining to listen to. My favorite part so far was when that guy(I can't remember his name )stepped in the abdomen of a fallen soldier.

Yeah meat-grinders like that are fun one-offs. You can't get too attached to your characters but they typically are a blast to play. This one was brutal though and so I used it as a reminder of just how terrible WWI was. Especially since we tend to gloss over our character's war history and typically use it for justifying some skills.

I realized it would be a blood bath from the get go.

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I enjoyed playing in Murph's NML game immensely. I know I've talked about some of the negative consequences of meat-grinder games on the show -- like the shallower attachment to characters and less time to develop personality -- but I should also say this game was just awesome fun from start to finish. Loved the gritty feel, the bleak mood, the fatalism of the party and the constant shadow of death. I particularly enjoy how it ended -- but you'll have to tune in for the next episodes to see what I mean!

[Keeper Dan]

Episode 2 has dropped and should be in the feed for everyone.

[Howard]

Good show. I used to get Sgt. Rock comics back-in-the-day along with the Unknown Soldier. This show is bringing back some fond memories of a squad of soldiers trapped in a supernatural predicament above their pay grade. This also has that "Lost"(the TV show)feel.

On a side topic......fudging rolls.

As a GM/Keeper, preparing a game is half the fun, playing the whole thing start to finish with your friends is the other half. If they die before the end, it takes the fun out of it for me, and I'm sure for them. In a gaming system without the mechanic "Bennies/fortune/Luck/Honor/Fate" points, or the ability to re-roll a bad die, fudging is necessary. In this scenarios case, with as many SAN checks, instead of rolling and getting that unfortunate high roll and having all(but one) of the characters going insane at the same time, I would have simply said if you miss your check, lose 1, if you make it 0. I also never play a written scenario by-the-book. You really can't. These are my opinions and it's how I roll, I know and I still have fun playing in all of the various types of Keeper's games without complaint.

[Keeper Jon]

On a side topic......fudging rolls.

As a GM/Keeper, preparing a game is half the fun, playing the whole thing start to finish with your friends is the other half. If they die before the end, it takes the fun out of it for me, and I'm sure for them. In a gaming system without the mechanic "Bennies/fortune/Luck/Honor/Fate" points, or the ability to re-roll a bad die, fudging is necessary. In this scenarios case, with as many SAN checks, instead of rolling and getting that unfortunate high roll and having all(but one) of the characters going insane at the same time, I would have simply said if you miss your check, lose 1, if you make it 0. I also never play a written scenario by-the-book. You really can't. These are my opinions and it's how I roll, I know and I still have fun playing in all of the various types of Keeper's games without complaint.

I totally agree. If it's at all possible, I'll do my best to ensure that the players are able to make it to the climax of the adventure. At which point, all bets are off.

[PirateLawyer]

On a side topic......fudging rolls.

As a GM/Keeper, preparing a game is half the fun, playing the whole thing start to finish with your friends is the other half. If they die before the end, it takes the fun out of it for me, and I'm sure for them. In a gaming system without the mechanic "Bennies/fortune/Luck/Honor/Fate" points, or the ability to re-roll a bad die, fudging is necessary. In this scenarios case, with as many SAN checks, instead of rolling and getting that unfortunate high roll and having all(but one) of the characters going insane at the same time, I would have simply said if you miss your check, lose 1, if you make it 0. I also never play a written scenario by-the-book. You really can't. These are my opinions and it's how I roll, I know and I still have fun playing in all of the various types of Keeper's games without complaint.

I totally agree. If it's at all possible, I'll do my best to ensure that the players are able to make it to the climax of the adventure. At which point, all bets are off.

I could not disagree more, at least as far as adjudicating a Call of Cthulhu game. If the players do something really stupid, or they get unlucky in a dangerous situation where the consequences are potentially severe, then mayhem should and will ensue if I am the Keeper. Even if they are only, say, 25% of the way into the investigation. The dice represent the callous uncaring nature of the Lovecraftian universe. If you as Keeper know that you'll never put the hammer down on the players ... well, you're not playing a horror game any longer, in my view.


Let me give an example. At the outset of my Delta Green campaign I ran my players through Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays, where the investigators ran a manhunt for a Special Forces deserter. The four of them had some red-shirt tribal police and state police with them when they confronted him at his cave hideout. The player in question, an expert outdoorsman, took the lead scouting role. He critically failed both his Hide and Sneak rolls. The antagonist, an expert sniper impaled his rifle attack. The results? One dead investigator. I couldn't justify having the antagonist shoot one of the redshirts in that case because they hadn't fumbled their rolls and they weren't the closest target. The scenario continued for another five hours of game play and the player was unfazed by the result.

[Howard]

"If the players do something really stupid"

"The dice represent the callous uncaring nature of the Lovecraftian universe"

"The antagonist, an expert sniper"

Of course if they do something stupid they die, no Keeper/GM has mercy for stupidity, it was even hard when we were 12. Blaming character death on your good die rolls is an excuse for ending the game early probably because your not having fun or you didn't read the rest of the scenario. The bad guy is an expert sniper? Really? Really? .........stone cold killa keeper

[KeeperMurph]

Just for the record I fudged a lot of rolls to get them through this segment. There is a place in each game where it no longer matters, but this was done as much for radio's sake as for the player's.

Typing sucks on a phone or I'd go on, maybe later?

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[Howard]

Spirit Wolf, nooooo! Good show fellas. Some really good descriptive situations with quality play. Cheers all around. I'm not an experienced Cthulhu guy but I really picked up some mechanics understanding in this one. You guys(probably unknowingly)had good gamer communication going on during your dice rolling segments. Sharing different rule specifics, skills, base checks etc. A question for Keeper Murph: Was there another way into the church? Did the bad guy appear and wreak havoc because they broke the seal? A question for the group: I missed this explanation, Why does your characters know poetry and painting instead of .......more investigation/soldier skills

[Keeper Dan]

They know those kinds of things because that's their careers before being drafted for the War. Soldier training goes on top of who the character already was.
It's an odd occurrence in Call of Cthulhu that players have fun with characters that are far from being optimal in their situations. We'll choose skills we know will be of little to no use, or choose attributes that we know will get us into trouble later. Low POW or DEX for example.

[KeeperMurph]

Howard had they tried they could have attempted to preserve the seal, but after the game they had I knew it would be unlikely.

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