UPDATED! 23rd Jan - Call of Cthulhu MMORPG: A Design Proposal
- Thread starter Keyser_Soze
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Special Abilities doesnt necessarily mean magic spells. Rather they are talent that an investigator can select and hot key providing them meet level and skill requirements.SUPA FRANKY said:
For example: Imagine you have an investigator that is a Gum Shoe / Hard Case. Lets say he is level five and he meets the skill requirement - Conditioning (Increasing his fatigue level).
He can then select an ability called "adrenaline rush" which boosts his HP, fatigue and attack bonuses for a short amount of time. All special abilities have cooldowns, so he cant keep spamming it.
Mythos Powers - Spells if you will - do exist and players can use them - but it is VERY VERY dangerous to do so. Everything in CoC comes with a price, and the greater the power the GREATER the price.
In the PnP COC, all Investigators have "Magic Points" i.e Mana, from which they can cast any spells they have. Unfortunately, casting a spell is not as easy as spamming a key in WoW.
For one thing a whole host of things can go wrong:
1. Spell fizzles out
2. Spell backfires
3. Summons malevonent beings (My personal favourite)
4. Effect is misdirected to wrong target
5. Increases Insanity
6. Anything you can think that can make the situation worse.
Now, the point here is that an expereinced investigator who has spent his points on Mythos skills will be a more effective caster than an amateur, and therefore can minimize the possibility of the above. UNFORTUNATELY The ability to be an effective caster correlates strongly with the degree of insanity.
This is why most cultists in the Mythos are bat-shit crazy. They may be able to cast horrific spells but they are no longer playing with a full deck (Or even a deck to begin with)
I plan on writing a full "Mock up" of an investigation from start to finish, so you can take a look see at how it should pan out.SUPA FRANKY said:
Look for it in the next 24hours.
Playing tabletop roleplaying games like Call of Cthulhu in the BRP and Trail of Cthulhu in the Gumshoe, as well as playing other horror games like Fear Itself (Which also uses the Gumshoe system) has made me realise that whenever a horror atmosphere is created, if it can be easily given a name, it's not horrible any more. A Shoggoth is a lot less scary than a Tentacled and Amebic lifeform that kills people, and it's far less scary than people going insane and doing that kind of thing.
However, Call of Cthulhu is an awesome thing to turn into a game, taking a very pulpish bent to the game would be advisable though, as the purist version would be a little infuriating. The investigative side should be incredibly strong, and the combat should be high tension and bloody scary.
Special abilities:
Good and bad idea, it puts investment in a particular character, which is good because it means losing the character is traumatic, but it puts power on the characters side, this correlates with a pulpish game, so roll with that I'd say.
I would probably play This Call of Cthulhu, but it probably would be best kept not MMO, or if it is, have a degree of separation between players. You shouldn't be able to chat like in WoW, because that loses the atmosphere.
All in all, Good Idea.
However, Call of Cthulhu is an awesome thing to turn into a game, taking a very pulpish bent to the game would be advisable though, as the purist version would be a little infuriating. The investigative side should be incredibly strong, and the combat should be high tension and bloody scary.
Special abilities:
Good and bad idea, it puts investment in a particular character, which is good because it means losing the character is traumatic, but it puts power on the characters side, this correlates with a pulpish game, so roll with that I'd say.
I would probably play This Call of Cthulhu, but it probably would be best kept not MMO, or if it is, have a degree of separation between players. You shouldn't be able to chat like in WoW, because that loses the atmosphere.
All in all, Good Idea.
I'm guessing you mean an MMO where it's basically a one player game, but you chat and share info with real people, right? Maybe do some of the missions co-op too.
This is as opposed to a traditional MMO with end game etc.
This is as opposed to a traditional MMO with end game etc.
Sounds great... Sign me up! I really like how you approached this concept - the idea of creating an entire investigative team is very appealing to me, and I think would open up a great deal of strategic options not available in other games.Keyser_Soze said:
You've obviously put a great deal of thought and effort into this, so it begs the question: Is this an early draft of a design document intended for proposal, or are you just doing this for your own amusement?
I hope that you're being facetious... The rights were never Metallica's in the first place, and all of Lovecraft's works recently entered the public domain...Tennou486 said:
Nope, not at all...saintchristopher said:
I'd say to take a quick look at Requiem: Bloodymare, which is a horror based RPG.
There is actually a Cthulu MMOBG (Multiplayer Board Game) here: http://www.cthulhunation.co.uk/ as well as an MMO here: http://www.cthulhugame.it/ and here: http://www.cthulhureturns.com/
There is actually a Cthulu MMOBG (Multiplayer Board Game) here: http://www.cthulhunation.co.uk/ as well as an MMO here: http://www.cthulhugame.it/ and here: http://www.cthulhureturns.com/
Well it was beating around my head for a while, so let's just say this is cathartic. If anything comes out from that would be cool, but hey, doubt many developers are reading the Escapist.Yog Sothoth said:
I am writing out the whole mock up as we speak, look for it by tommorow, stil fleshing out some of the concepts.
Maybe, but I mean I am approaching the whole thing from the point of well my old days running PnP CoC. Also, since the whole concept would be relatively modular, I dont think there would be too many issues to spin it out as an MMO.Clik said:
Had a similar idea a while back except in true MMO style one side was investigators and one was cultists. The game would run for as long as the investigators prevented the Cultists didn't summon a great old one!
So yeah it would be finite and the company that made it would need to be aware that the sever would eventually crash, hence the end of the world!
So yeah it would be finite and the company that made it would need to be aware that the sever would eventually crash, hence the end of the world!
Phoenix Arrow said:
Actually I was thinking about that myself. Isolation is key component of terror, so what I had in mind is that while there is the ability to do a direct chat between players in the Hubs - the Non-encounter areas - within the investigation zone players are isolated from the rest of the world. Mind you they can use meta-game means to break through this, but then restrciting communications can only go so far.Clik said:
Even in the game hubs however, your not going to have bloody trade channels and all that nonsense which encourages spam. Comunication will either be "targeted" LOS, mail, or bulletin boards. This will restrict spamming.
Economy wise, I am still thinking it through without having too much Munchkin feel to it. Primarily I see trade in Artifacts and the like rather than mundane items which would generally be bought from NPC vendors. Even then Agency Ratings, Investigator levels and Legacies would apply to curtail game breaking twinking.
That is a very very interesting concept. However the concept of the game ending with death is indeed very very harsh. Could it be possible instead that when you die you may resume playing as a descendant of your previous character? This would work very well with the concept of heirlooms and i think would add greatly to the feeling of time within the story, and perhaps even allow the player to in a sense create their own story.
Actually I just meant people that would site on a website and mine data to find out the best starting stats, skill distribution, equipment, etc...Keyser_Soze said:
Definitely have randomness a major factor so nothing can be documented for others to ruin the sense of wonder =P