MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

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Keeper Dan
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MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Keeper Dan » Tue Aug 12, 2014 2:55 am

Image
In this episode, we field lots of questions from listeners, we walk a high-wire line between Monte Hall and Killer Keeper. And for the main topic, flintlocks, revolvers and javelins, oh my!

Campus Crier
  • Horrors of War, A Covenant with Death, a new Kickstarter from Pegan Publishing
  • Cthulhu Reborn announces, coming soon: Geoff Gillan and Dean Adelaide’s “Machine King
  • Today we are incredibly, INCREDIBLY happy to be announcing the next title in our line of free scenarios for Call of Cthulhu, Geoff Gillan’s incredible “almost lost work”, The Machine King
  • Shadow Bound: A Lovecraftian web series is now free to watch, (as reported by the Lovecraft eZine)
  • Check out the Lovecraft eZine site for episodes of this web series. It won a Peoples Choice Award at the Melbourne Web Festival in Australia.
  • The Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition proof version has been released! This includes both the core rulebook and the players guide.
  • GenCon updates:
  • A company called Oomba is going to be at GenCon Broadcasting the entire con live for the first time ever via Oomba.tv and Oomba.com
  • They are using tournament organizing software to run the Settlers of Catan National Championships, among other Mayfair and Cryptozoic games, and to make an attempt at the World Record for largest tournament of Rock, Paper, Scissors ever -- though they're using the doing Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock expansion rules.
  • Warpo hold their own panel at the con. Look for SEM1466980 on Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
  • The company was also recently featured on the podcast for Boing Boing, called "Gweek."
  • A reminder: Be sure to pick up your tickets for any seminars (like ours) at the Will-Call counter. It's open 24 hours a day starting Thursday.
  • We've started a separate Twitter account for GenCon. Follow us at @mupgc to see frequent updates.

Listener Feedback
Mawdrigen writes:
Hi there, Mawdrigen here from thecultofteaanddice.net, just dropping you a quick line to say I'm really enjoying your actual play of Masks although it's making me worried for my planned horror on the orient express campaign, when it gets released. I was intending on having each player roll three characters, but I may increase that to five. Do you ever find that it's difficult to get player buy in for the horror elements of call of Cthulhu? In the past I've had heard of some groups (and ran one) who tried to turn it into a pulp action game. This usually results in the expected death and mayhem, but tends to be destructive to leads (and pcs, for example leaping from a window to land crotch first on an iron railing...) which can derail campaigns. Also, how do you deal with characters dying with important information? Keep up the good work -- Mawdrigen, Chief cultist of the cult of tea and dice.
Gareth Writes:
Hey there guys, Gareth here, calling from the great Kingdom of the Zulus. First off, thanks for a GREAT podcast! I started listening to it just after I started playing the game a couple of years ago and it’s got me into being the keeper of pretty much all the games we play. Best. Fun. Ever! So I’m working on writing my first scenario. I’ve got quite far with planning the plot and laying the game out inside my head. I’ve got a few notes and am going to do my first play test next week – eek! Looking forward to it as it’s the first thing I’ve come across set in an historical South African setting – flintlock rifles, sabres, leopards and ox-wagons! Oh, and sanity-blasting monsters – almost forgot about them. However, my question is this: do you guys have a particular method or framework that you follow when actually putting words onto paper for a scenario. I really want to try and get this published when it’s done as it seems to have a lot of potential. From reading other scenarios I’ve run, they seem to be divided into player information and keeper information for each particular scene, but I’m not sure if this is the correct approach to take; if this is only organized at publication time or if you start from this framework right at the beginning. I am used to writing a bit of prose fiction, which is fine, but a lot less structured it seems. Any advice for a budding new scenario writer with some good ideas, but no idea where to start really? And finally… VIVA PODS, VIVA! VIVA MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY, VIVA! VIVA CTHULHU, VIVA! (err… wait… what?) May your dice roll low! Gareth >;,;<

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Side Topic
E-mail from TheStoryteller
Ia! Keepers,

I'm listed as TheStoryteller on the forum, as I just joined yesterday. I am truly impressed by the excellent,
high-quality podcast you guys do. Keep up the great work. Although I have been playing and running games for many, many years, I wanted to ask a few questions to get your opinions on some thoughts I've recently had.

First off, do you guys prefer "Storyteller", "Keeper of Arcane (Forbidden) Lore", or something more contemporary, like "GM", "DM", etc.?

Secondly, I have often been inspired by things around me with ideas for game scenarios, characters, events, etc.
Lately, my muse has been struck by an anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. Given the story and events within the series, it is easy to see several classic themes of horror, and indeed Lovecraftian Horror as well, despite the source being an animated program. My question in this case is "What are some of your most unexpected sources of inspiration for horror gaming, particularly Call of Cthulhu?". If need be, this could be expanded to a full segment on your show, to include more common sources of inspiration, and examples of inspiration gone horribly awry as well.

Thirdly, Can you guys walk me through the techniques and processes you use in creating a complete campaign, as opposed to a one-shot, or Con game?

Lastly, what tips can you offer people who are new to running games, as well as experienced ones like myself, on balancing "Monty Haul" vs. "Evil GM" sessions, with emphasis on horror games such as Call of Cthulhu? What signs can you think of that say you're going too hard on players, or that they're having too easy of a time in a given adventure? I look forward to hearing more amazing episodes from all of you.

Wishing you guys the best, this is TheStoryteller, and I'm enrolled at the Miskatonic University Podcast! Go PODS!
Let's Make a Deal - 1985 Episode with Monty Hall


Main Topic
Weapons & firearms, from a CoC point of view.

1920s Investigator's Companion

Investigator Weapons, volume 1

Basic Roleplaying

Achtung! Cthulhu - Keepers and Investigators Guide

HPLHS- An E-Z Guide to Cthulhu Weaponry Part I

HPLHS- An E-Z Guide to Cthulhu Weaponry Part 2

All about the Thompson Submachine Gun -- look here, [url=Ad:%20http://home.comcast.net/~gunspotz/us_rifles/Thompson/cowboys.gif]here[/url], hereand herefor info and pics.

Here's the Tommy Gun broken down into a violin case.

Guns 1920 - 1929

Check out Lindybeige, a great Youtube channel about the history of weapons and busting of weapon myths.

Channel link

And here are a few examples:
Dual wielding
Longbows
Great War helmets
Bullets and small arms

There’s also Skallagrim, (and many others that Youtube will suggest for you once you’ve gone down the Lindybeige rabbit hole)
Keeper Dan of the Miskatonic University Podcast

Graham
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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Graham » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:28 am

I've just downloaded the episode, but I thought I'd contribute a link to support the firearms part of the program.

Forgotten Weapons is a blog run by a firearms collector/retailer. It covers the more obscure firearms, and occasionally makes weapon manuals/adverts available in PDF form.

Forgotten Weapons Blog

Forgotten Weapons Youtube Channel

Forgotten Weapons: Original Firearms Manuals (Note: some are not in English)

Two examples of material available.

1. The Kynoch (Schwarzlose Patent) Machine Gun

Kynoch was a well known maker of bullets and shotgun shells, for a time they also offered a machine gun based on an Austrian design.
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-cont ... %20Gun.pdf

2. The Maxim Silencer

Legal in the United States until 1934.
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-cont ... ochure.pdf
Last edited by Graham on Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"If you do good, you'll live forever, if you do bad, you'll die hearing a single note for I am the one true sound...", Fragment found in a cult hideout.

Dr. Gerard
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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Dr. Gerard » Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:18 am

Awesome, I was hoping we would get good supplemental info in this thread. Thanks once again Graham!
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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Graham » Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:55 pm

Dr. Gerard wrote:Awesome, I was hoping we would get good supplemental info in this thread. Thanks once again Graham!
I have found that site to be quite useful for background information, especially the videos where they take the time to describe the gun before they fire it, such as the video I am linking to below which is on a shotgun conversion of a Lee-Enfield rifle, at the end, there is a demonstration of rapid fire using a single shot weapon: Youtube:Ishapore Enfield.410 Shotgun Conversion.

In one early game I, in consultation with the Keeper created a 'Remittance Man' type character for a 1920s game who had somehow come into posession of a 'Webley-Mars' a gun which required my character to make a strength check each time it was fired to keep from dropping the gun due to the recoil effects. The Forgotten Weapons blog post on the gun describes it as a gun "...that would really be more at home in a Jules Verne novel..." I've lost the character sheet with the weapon notes on it, but from memory the damage was something like 1D10+4 (or 3d6+4), anyway the blog entry which includes the manual is linked below:

Forgotten Weapons: Webley-Mars.

Listened to the episode part-way through and found it very interesting, will listen to the rest of it tomorrow.
"If you do good, you'll live forever, if you do bad, you'll die hearing a single note for I am the one true sound...", Fragment found in a cult hideout.

HANS
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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by HANS » Fri Aug 15, 2014 12:35 pm

Thanks for the kind words about my work and Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, specifically. We're hard at work to follow this up with several other volumes; Investigator Weapons 2: Modern Day, for support of Now, Delta Green, and The Laundry campaigns is in layout. Investigator Weapons 3: WWII just entered editing, and is not only intended to support settings like Achtung! Cthulhu and World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour, but also homegrown campaigns in the years prior, during, and after the war. I'm currently writing Investigator Weapons 4: Gaslight and Wild West to support Cthulhu by Gaslight and other campaigns set c 1870-1910.

A comment regarding your discussion on the podcast, specifically the differences in reloading different types of guns. The question whether you have to just insert a fresh magazine into your pistol after the slide locked open or have to fumble around with individual shells that you have to retrieve from your coat pocket and labouriously insert one-by-one into your shotgun can make a dramatic difference, both in real life and, of course, in the game. You seem unsure whether there already exist rules for this; yes, there are, in the official rules no less (Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition, p. 63). In the Investigator Weapons series, I considerably expand on this (while keeping the basic mechanics!), and actually describe the process step-by-step for each individual gun, allowing Keepers and players to envision what happens. This is one of the main goals of the books, to allow folks without hands-on experience to still portray this kind of action in an at least fairly convincing way.

You also mention the problem of the automatic fire rules. Allow me to point to the rules I came up for this (Investigator Weapons 1, pp. 12-13). These are not only more realistic than the current solution in the Sixth Edition, they are also simpler (requiring only one roll), and are actually somewhat similar to those found in Call of Cthulhu, First Edition.

Cheers

HANS

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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by caddy1071 » Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:54 am

HANS wrote:We're hard at work to follow this up with several other volumes; Investigator Weapons 2: Modern Day, for support of Now, Delta Green, and The Laundry campaigns is in layout. Investigator Weapons 3: WWII just entered editing, and is not only intended to support settings like Achtung! Cthulhu and World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour, but also homegrown campaigns in the years prior, during, and after the war. I'm currently writing Investigator Weapons 4: Gaslight and Wild West to support Cthulhu by Gaslight and other campaigns set c 1870-1910.
That's awesome to hear, Hans! Looking forward to the new publications! Thank you for all the hard work and research to help us play time period accurate! :)

Thanks!
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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Graham » Sun Aug 17, 2014 9:11 am

Dean has posted some artwork previews for "The Machine King" over on his blog. This one is looking very interesting.

http://cthulhureborn.wordpress.com/2014 ... hine-king/
"If you do good, you'll live forever, if you do bad, you'll die hearing a single note for I am the one true sound...", Fragment found in a cult hideout.

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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by WitchDoctor » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:14 pm

Reading a book right now "Quartered Safe Out Here" (highly recommended) about the Burma campaign in WWII by the guy who wrote the Flashman novels. In it, he is given a Tommy gun upon promotion and two things jumped out at me:
1. He hated it and tried to get rid of it at the first opportunity. Too heavy and inaccurate.
2. He felt like "a bully" carrying it. Guess that argues for some intimidation plusses when dealing with NPCs.

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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by HANS » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:28 pm

WitchDoctor wrote:Reading a book right now "Quartered Safe Out Here" (highly recommended) about the Burma campaign in WWII by the guy who wrote the Flashman novels. In it, he is given a Tommy gun upon promotion and two things jumped out at me:
1. He hated it and tried to get rid of it at the first opportunity. Too heavy and inaccurate.
During its period of frontline service use (c 1921-1960), the Thompson generated widely different responses from all kinds of people. Some hated it, others loved it. The reality is that it is great for some applications, bad for others. It is a fairly short-range weapon, best used below 50 or even 25 metres. At that range, it is very accurate (I regularily compete with mine). It sucks at greater distances, you really want a carbine or rifle for that. The only criticism that is true for everyone is that the gun and the ammunition is very heavy, even compared to other submachine guns. Nevertheless, many units during WWII refused to trade it in for lighter weapons. It is very reliable (with the box magazine, not the drums) and the .45 is a powerful round for a pistol cartridge.

Cheers

HANS

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Re: MU Podcast 062 - Under the Gun

Post by Graham » Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:01 am

The Machine King has been released. The link below goes to a page which includes downloads of both a screen and printable version.

http://cthulhureborn.wordpress.com/2014 ... ing-lives/
"If you do good, you'll live forever, if you do bad, you'll die hearing a single note for I am the one true sound...", Fragment found in a cult hideout.

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