Call of Cthulhu: The Waldegrave Mansion Horror (OOC)

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Count Otto Black

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This thread is for topics which are at least somewhat relevant to the game. Any discussions of game mechanics or the exact meaning of rules should go here.
 
Important note concerning dice rolls

As I mentioned before, partly to speed up play in this notoriously slow format and partly because it makes more sense, I'll be making some of the rolls which on a tabletop would be left yo the players. This particularly applies to Perception Checks, but may also affect other skills.

Basically, all actions will be divided in four categories: Involuntary, Definite, Indefinite, and Subconscious. Involuntary covers things like SAN Checks which happen automatically and over which the players have no absolutely no influence, so it doesn't matter who generates the random number. You roll these unless I decide you don't need to know there's any reason to make a roll unless you fail it, in which case I do.

Definite covers all actions where you know exactly what you're trying to achieve and it will be obvious whether or not you've succeeded, such as flipping a coin, hitting somebody with a baseball bat, or baking a cake. You make these rolls and, if it seems reasonable, continue based on your result. You may occasionally be told by me that although you know you should have succeeded you failed after all, but since you know that under normal circumstances you would have succeeded, this will give you a hint that something funny's going on.

Indefinite applies to all rolls where you're not exactly sure what, if anything, you're trying to accomplish, and those will be made by me. For example, Library Search would nearly always be Indefinite because you probably won't know for sure whether the book or document you're searching for is actually there, and you'll quite often just be looking for anything interesting. In such cases, you roll nothing, leaving it to me, so if you don't find what you were looking for, you won't know whether you didn't search well enough or it simply wasn't there.

However, the way you describe your search will have considerable bearing on how difficult I decide the task is. For example, if you concentrate on the French section of a library because you think the book you're after may be in French, if that's true you'll get a bonus, though there may be a penalty if you were misinformed and it's actually in Swedish. Likewise, if you specifically look for secret drawers in a desk, you'll be more likely to find them if they exist, but you can't search every piece of furniture you ever encounter for hidden compartments and hope for a bonus every time. You must have some justification for believing there might be a secret drawer in this particular desk to get that bonus.

Subconscious covers rolls you don't know you have to make, and therefore cannot possibly influence. For example, if In think you might notice that somebody's lying, I won't ask you to make a Psychology roll and if you fail, pretend I had no reason at all for asking, and then hope you won't guess there's something amiss with the person you're talking to right now! I'll just make the roll myself on your behalf, and if it's a fail, you'll never know I rolled anything.

On the other hand, if you decide in character to be suspicious of an NPC, that's an Indefinite Psychology roll, so you know dice are being rolled by me, but you don't know the numbers, only what I tell you. Note that critical failure is impossible with a Subconscious roll (unless you're insane), but you can critically fail an Indefinite roll without necessarily knowing it. In the previous example, critical failure might mean that the person you suspected of lying noticed your suspicion and hostilty, which, whether they're lying or not, may have consequences.

The 'Pushed Roll' Rule Explained For People Who Don't Have CoC 7e

This is a very major addition to the old rules so we might as well use it. Fortunately it's extremely simple. Basically, if you fail to do pretty much anything, you announce that your PC is going to try again, and this time give it everything he's got because this really matters. However, if you fail again, there are no third chances, and the consequences of failure may be worse than usual. For instance, if you're trying to break down a door with your shoulder, failure followed by a Pushed roll which also fails means that not only is the door still shut, you hurled yourself against it with such reckless desperation that you've taken a little bit of damage.

Pushed rolls are not possible in any situation where you have no influence over the consequences, such as Luck or SAN rolls. They are not OOC reruns of the last few moments of gametime but IC attempts to perform the task again, so your PC must to have time to make the second attempt. Therefore Pushed rolls aren't permitted in combat or any other situation where you can't fit in an extra action. Irreversible actions are not Pushable. If you've already broken some vital object trying to do something with it, you can't unbreak it and have another go.

Lastly, although they're intended to give you a second chance in emergencies, it's possible to constantly Push trivial rolls, knowing that if you fail, nothing very bad can possibly happen. Be aware that this is not a good strategy to adopt! Pushing rolls that don't really matter and failing will have consequences which, though they're unlikely to kill you, will not be helpful in the long run! In particular, failing Pushed rolls that involve trying to influence other people is likely to give those people exaggeratedly negative feelings towards you.
 
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