Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

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Captain_Nibbz
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Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Captain_Nibbz »

I'm gearing up for a new one-on-one game with my wife and I'm hoping to pick the forum's collective minds for advice. I recently found my copy of the Reign of Terror adventure for the Call of Cthulhu RPG on my shelf and it got my brain juices flowing.

I thought that I would take the basic framework found in the book but run the adventure using the Palladium system (as it is currently my go to for just about anything). However, I'm trying to figure out which of the various systems (if any) would be the best to recreate the feeling of CoC without needing to convert a ton of stuff over or drop a lot of information from the book itself. I'm leaning towards using BtS, but I don't know that its the best fit.

Any advice would be welcome! And just to be clear, I'm not asking for advice converting any of the material or looking to violate forum rules on this, I'm simply looking for advice on what version of the system would best fit the Lovecraftian vibe of the other game.

Thanks in advance,
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

Beyond the supernatural. just ban the offensive classes like hunters, firewalkers, psimechanics, etc. if using the second edition (or the 1st, there are still some of those there)
just use the regular people and investigator types, for a game focused more on intellectual puzzle solving and surviving eldritch encounters without tons of firepower or psychic/magic power to speak of themselves.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Jack Burton »

Captain_Nibbz wrote:I'm gearing up for a new one-on-one game with my wife and I'm hoping to pick the forum's collective minds for advice. I recently found my copy of the Reign of Terror adventure for the Call of Cthulhu RPG on my shelf and it got my brain juices flowing.

I thought that I would take the basic framework found in the book but run the adventure using the Palladium system (as it is currently my go to for just about anything). However, I'm trying to figure out which of the various systems (if any) would be the best to recreate the feeling of CoC without needing to convert a ton of stuff over or drop a lot of information from the book itself. I'm leaning towards using BtS, but I don't know that its the best fit.

Any advice would be welcome! And just to be clear, I'm not asking for advice converting any of the material or looking to violate forum rules on this, I'm simply looking for advice on what version of the system would best fit the Lovecraftian vibe of the other game.
Thanks in advance,
Captain Nibbz


If you use BtS, I'd drop the ISP multipliers. The more I play BtS, the more I hate that mechanic. That's just my opinion. If you like it, of course, use it!
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by zerombr »

I hate it too. BTS 1E is the game of choice, I'm almost literally doing that with the Black Cat Society game. The sanity mechanic is pseudo-replaced by M.E. damage
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Shorty Lickens »

It just occurred to me I've never played Nightbane.
Or Beyond the Supernatural.
Or Splicers.
Or Dead Reign.





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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Mr. Jays »

Come to GenCon or the Open House and this can be remedied
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by hbrika »

Sounds like a fun time, I am interested to hear on how you handle SAN checks and SAN loss?

The Victim class in BTS is a good one for NPCs

Is there a Palladium equivalent of Hobo? That was a great class in the Call of Cthulhu game it had a few good survival skills.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Hotrod »

Captain_Nibbz wrote:I'm gearing up for a new one-on-one game with my wife and I'm hoping to pick the forum's collective minds for advice. I recently found my copy of the Reign of Terror adventure for the Call of Cthulhu RPG on my shelf and it got my brain juices flowing.

I thought that I would take the basic framework found in the book but run the adventure using the Palladium system (as it is currently my go to for just about anything). However, I'm trying to figure out which of the various systems (if any) would be the best to recreate the feeling of CoC without needing to convert a ton of stuff over or drop a lot of information from the book itself. I'm leaning towards using BtS, but I don't know that its the best fit.

Any advice would be welcome! And just to be clear, I'm not asking for advice converting any of the material or looking to violate forum rules on this, I'm simply looking for advice on what version of the system would best fit the Lovecraftian vibe of the other game.

Thanks in advance,
Captain Nibbz


I think BtS is built for this sort of thing pretty well. That said, if I can't try to recreate the awesomeness of Old Man Henderson, I'm not sure if a Cthulhu-type game is really worth it.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Killer Cyborg »

Beyond The Supernatural, but go with the Average Person or Victim type characters.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by hbrika »

Reading the Old Man Henderson link. I'm impressed and laughing my ass off.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Hotrod »

hbrika wrote:Reading the Old Man Henderson link. I'm impressed and laughing my ass off.

Yeah, that story's always good for a laugh. Total plot derailment was never done so awesomely as with Old Man Henderson.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Rogerd »

To be fair Pulp Cthulhu is fun, where you could essentially play Indiana Jones type character, essentially cinematic adventure. So there is no reason your character cannot pull something akin to Old Man Henderson. Nothing quite as insane

Kind like Buffy did in S1 or was it 2 with The Judge that could not he harmed by the hand of mortal man. So she used a rocket launcher to blow him up.

So you could easily use Ninjas and Superspies minus chi powers and just have well trained operatives kicking the crap out of cultists.
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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by slade the sniper »

Use Beyond the Supernatural characters.
Use Rifts monsters.

Enjoy.

The PCs will learn that "bigger guns" is really not an option...unless they start stealing tanks and AC-130 gunships, and that just opens up the PCs to be hunted by everyone and everything.

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Re: Best Palladium Game for Emulating the Cthulhu Mythos

Unread post by Shorty Lickens »

slade the sniper wrote:Use Beyond the Supernatural characters.
Use Rifts monsters.

Enjoy.

The PCs will learn that "bigger guns" is really not an option...unless they start stealing tanks and AC-130 gunships, and that just opens up the PCs to be hunted by everyone and everything.

-STS

Conversion Book 3 is probably a good source as well.
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