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Chaosium just put excess stock of their Call of Cthulhu Anniversary Box Set for sale on their web site. I originally backed the KS but, due to an unexpected confluence of events, I had to cancel it (along with my Mothership pledge too). So today I jumped all over the 2 inch Box Set version!
I would absolutely love to get that Deluxe Anniversay Set of Classic Call of Cthulhu goodies, but it's gonna set me back $173 AUD for the privledge of those nostalgia vibes... my missus won't be happy with me if I buckle and order it!
 
We have played a few adventures with those Cthulhu Pulp rules, where you can spend 50 luck points to avoid getting killed. Almost like WFRP Fate Points or whatever. I didn't like it very much, but some other players were overjoyed when escaping certain death. Not very Lovecrafty, I think, but to each their own...
I would expect Luck to feel quite pulpy in the Pulp Cthulhu supplement, in contrast to the Luck rules in the standard Call of Cthulhu game.

There is a rule in the Pulp Cthulhu supplement that sounds similar to what you describing, it's when a PC can avoid certain death by the expenditure of ALL their Luck Pts (they must have a minimum of 30 Luck Pts remaining to do this). Same sort of thing.

I agree that those additional Luck Pts rules in the Pulp Cthulhu supplement would have no place in a standard Call of Cthulhu game however, they would be too powerful in a standard game where you want the characters to feel vulnerable.
 
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There is a rule in the Pulp Cthulhu supplement that sounds similar to what you describing, it's when a PC can avoid certain death by the expenditure of ALL their Luck Pts (they must have a minimum of 30 Luck Pts remaining to do this). Same sort of thing.
That was probably it! I didn't remember it correctly because I always made sure that I don't have enough Luck to cheat death... :grin:
Also the Pulp rules characters are much better at everything, including spells, hit points etc.
 
That was probably it! I didn't remember it correctly because I always made sure that I don't have enough Luck to cheat death... :grin:
Also the Pulp rules characters are much better at everything, including spells, hit points etc.
Yeah I think if all the dials are switched on for Pulp Cthulhu then the PCs have odds stacked in their favour (unless facing the real big bad mythos creatures), so I would probably tone down a few of those options even if I was running Pulp Cthulhu.
If wanting more of a standard game vulnerability experience, then I reckon completely avoid the Pulp Cthulhu supplement
 
I picked up two megadungeons, Arden Vul and Stonehell. The big difference between the two is presentation.

My immediate take-away from Stonehell is I need to build my own dungeons like this. It uses an innovative system to present the dungeon in a manner that is easy to use at the table. Each floor of the dungeon is composed of 4 sections. After a 2 page overview, each section is presented in a "one page dungeon" format with terse, single sentence key descriptions, a map, and wandering monster table. The end result is that an entire floor (roughly 120 rooms) is covered in 16 easy to read pages broken down into four 4-page sections. You could run a floor of this dungeon just fine with minimal prep and a quick skin or invest a little extra time to carefully read 16 pages and take some notes to knock it out of the park. I really cannot overstate the excellence of Stonehell's presentation; like I said, I plan to immediately incorporate this design into my current project.

Arden Vul is organized more traditionally; that is, Arden Vul feels like a dungeon that is meant to be read like a novel for entertainment and while it doesn't reach the bloat of previous editions the room descriptions could be trimmed. The sheer scale of it is impressive but 1-3 paragraph room descriptions, monster stat blocks, and massive maps make this thing an unwieldy 1,100+ page beast. I've only skimmed it but there's already a lot to like about this (I especially liked The Forum of Set which is a safe spot in the dungeon where PCs can interact with factions and sell loot) but the writing and presentation make me unlikely to host this one at the table any time soon.
 
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I would absolutely love to get that Deluxe Anniversay Set of Classic Call of Cthulhu goodies, but it's gonna set me back $173 AUD for the privledge of those nostalgia vibes... my missus won't be happy with me if I buckle and order it!

I was in two minds about whether to order it due to the cost. Then I realised there was a UK fullfilment centre... and that made it just on the edge of affordability... though I still shouldn't have... but I'm a weak man... and you know how the story went!
 
So I just received the latest version of HârnMaster 3rd Edition. It was made possible by the Kickstarter by Columbia Games a while back. Essentially, it's a do-over of HM3, but in glorious glossy full-colour and a few changes. The Tournament section was removed in favour of a few extra Bestiary entries, and a few pages containing the stat blocks of every Hârnic creature published, as far as I can tell. There's lots of new art, but they kept some of the Eric Hotz woodcuts which I've always loved too. Some of the old black and white art has been beautifully colourized by the original artist. It's really quite stunning. Yes, it's the same looseleaf format that CGI publishes most of their stuff in. I put it in sheet protectors so it's effectively immortal now. My partner is a designer, so she has turned me on to the power of colour, and this has it in spades. CGI has always done great work with their colour palette, and this is a high water mark for them in that regard. There is one black and white picture in the whole thing, probably left in just to mess with people like me. :tongue: It's an amazing product, could not be much happier. I would have liked to see cardstock like HM2, but the heavy glossy paper is still very nice. 9.95/10
 

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So I just received the latest version of HârnMaster 3rd Edition. It was made possible by the Kickstarter by Columbia Games a while back. Essentially, it's a do-over of HM3, but in glorious glossy full-colour and a few changes. The Tournament section was removed in favour of a few extra Bestiary entries, and a few pages containing the stat blocks of every Hârnic creature published, as far as I can tell. There's lots of new art, but they kept some of the Eric Hotz woodcuts which I've always loved too. Some of the old black and white art has been beautifully colourized by the original artist. It's really quite stunning. Yes, it's the same looseleaf format that CGI publishes most of their stuff in. I put it in sheet protectors so it's effectively immortal now. My partner is a designer, so she has turned me on to the power of colour, and this has it in spades. CGI has always done great work with their colour palette, and this is a high water mark for them in that regard. There is one black and white picture in the whole thing, probably left in just to mess with people like me. :tongue: It's an amazing product, could not be much happier. I would have liked to see cardstock like HM2, but the heavy glossy paper is still very nice. 9.95/10
I'm hoping that they do a Hardcover after the kingdom hardcovers finish.
 
So I just received the latest version of HârnMaster 3rd Edition. It was made possible by the Kickstarter by Columbia Games a while back. Essentially, it's a do-over of HM3, but in glorious glossy full-colour and a few changes. The Tournament section was removed in favour of a few extra Bestiary entries, and a few pages containing the stat blocks of every Hârnic creature published, as far as I can tell. There's lots of new art, but they kept some of the Eric Hotz woodcuts which I've always loved too. Some of the old black and white art has been beautifully colourized by the original artist. It's really quite stunning. Yes, it's the same looseleaf format that CGI publishes most of their stuff in. I put it in sheet protectors so it's effectively immortal now. My partner is a designer, so she has turned me on to the power of colour, and this has it in spades. CGI has always done great work with their colour palette, and this is a high water mark for them in that regard. There is one black and white picture in the whole thing, probably left in just to mess with people like me. :tongue: It's an amazing product, could not be much happier. I would have liked to see cardstock like HM2, but the heavy glossy paper is still very nice. 9.95/10
Thank you for the pictures. I picked up the PDF because of this.
 
I picked up the CoC Classic Edition box set at Gen Con and really like it so far. I've got a lot of the originals, but I'll admit I'm a sucker for boxed sets.

I also grabbed a copy of Stonehell Dungeon Brock Savage Brock Savage . I want to check out their format - see what I can learn from it!
 
I had a lot of the originals including the 2nd edition box, still got the original dice too. I did the KS and love it. Prob won't get used too much but..nostalgia. Interestingly I found the quality of the original is better as well.
 
Against the Darkmaster

I was interested in it for the artwork, primarily. Then I was curious about the D100 roll high mechanic (being a recent Mythras D100 roll under convert).

While the book is massive (which I don’t mind too much as I’m used to WFRP 1e and Zweihander), it is gorgeously laid out. The black and white art is fantastic and nostalgic.

The rules are very interesting, especially combat. It’s sort of the “inverse” of Mythras combat in some weird way. Hard to explain.

I quite like these rules and would definitely use them for my next Fantasy Tolkien-inspired campaign (my next D&D campaign will use Mythras Classic Fantasy).

A very solid purchase and I will cherish it.

I’m a d100 convert, hard.
 
Against the Darkmaster

I was interested in it for the artwork, primarily. Then I was curious about the D100 roll high mechanic (being a recent Mythras D100 roll under convert).

While the book is massive (which I don’t mind too much as I’m used to WFRP 1e and Zweihander), it is gorgeously laid out. The black and white art is fantastic and nostalgic.

The rules are very interesting, especially combat. It’s sort of the “inverse” of Mythras combat in some weird way. Hard to explain.

I quite like these rules and would definitely use them for my next Fantasy Tolkien-inspired campaign (my next D&D campaign will use Mythras Classic Fantasy).

A very solid purchase and I will cherish it.

I’m a d100 convert, hard.
As a teen who was often a player in ICE games as a teen, I always loved MERP, but felt that Rolemaster was a bit too sprawling. We moved onto HARP much later, as it was a much more tigher system than Rolemast, but it kind lacked a bit of the flavour of the MERP/RM 2E era of ICE games, perhaps it may have been due to the art direction, I'm not sure.

I ended up backing this book when it was being crowd funded, and the finished product is excellent.
I wish they had put the content in two books (perhaps in a slipcase), because it's a huge tome to try and casually read.
The system feels like a modernised version of MERP, and I absolutely love the classic fantasy b&w artwork, it's very evocative.
A crunchy system, a bit clunky, but still a great game, the combat cristical charts are descriptive and gritty.
The combat scenes are slower to resolve than D&D, but they end up having alot of flavour with the critical chart descriptions

I would love to see this book on the shelves of a of an everyday comic/game shop one day
 
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I've ordered the Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok core rulebook, because a YouTube review just captured me with the artwork, it looks absolutely beautiful.
Don't know how well the playability will be, but the book will be great to read and a bit of a conversation-starter.
I'm nervously eyballing the Classic Call of Cthulhu Deluxe Box Set, but I fear that my kids won't eat next week if I get that on top of what I have already spent on gaming today...
 
A hardback book in a slipcase arrived today. Very nice.

However, what possible use is this format for gaming? For professionals it is a pain in the backside and for the table one wants a slim paperback (Holmes Blue Book, RQ2 take take a bow).
 
A hardback book in a slipcase arrived today. Very nice.

However, what possible use is this format for gaming? For professionals it is a pain in the backside and for the table one wants a slim paperback (Holmes Blue Book, RQ2 take take a bow).
I'm generally not a fan of slipcases for RPG books. Rather than just grabbing a book off the shelf, I have to pick up the slipcase and slide out the titles that I want. It's not a big deal, but there really isn't any benefit to me offset that minor inconvenience. If I am running game with slipcases, I usually take any books I regularly consulting out and just set them on the shelf for easy access.

It's never anything that will stop me from buying a game, but when a kickstarter begins hyping the slipcover that is coming in the next stretch goal, I don't get excited.
 
I'm generally not a fan of slipcases for RPG books. Rather than just grabbing a book off the shelf, I have to pick up the slipcase and slide out the titles that I want. It's not a big deal, but there really isn't any benefit to me offset that minor inconvenience. If I am running game with slipcases, I usually take any books I regularly consulting out and just set them on the shelf for easy access.

It's never anything that will stop me from buying a game, but when a kickstarter begins hyping the slipcover that is coming in the next stretch goal, I don't get excited.
There was one Kickstarter recently where the slipcase was a separate add on and I didn't spring for it. Just don't see the need, and with shelf space at a premium, those few cm make a difference!
 
A hardback book in a slipcase arrived today. Very nice.

However, what possible use is this format for gaming? For professionals it is a pain in the backside and for the table one wants a slim paperback (Holmes Blue Book, RQ2 take take a bow).
Why:shock:? We never had any issue with running from a book that wasn't a slim paperback...and the first game* we ran from a dead tree book was GURPS.
It's got many good qualities, but slim it ain't and never have been:shade:!

*Not my book, and it remained the only one with printed books for quite some time. IIRC the next one was either Eclipse Phase, or Exalted, as we moved on to PDFs after that.
 
Why:shock:? We never had any issue with running from a book that wasn't a slim paperback...and the first game* we ran from a dead tree book was GURPS.
It's got many good qualities, but slim it ain't and never have been:shade:!

*Not my book, and it remained the only one with printed books for quite some time. IIRC the next one was either Eclipse Phase, or Exalted, as we moved on to PDFs after that.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a GURPS book in the flesh!

No reason why one couldn’t use a thick hardback, merely that there are cheaper and better “UI” for TTRPGs.
 
I picked up a large lot (technically 2 large lots) of Pathfinder 2nd Edition books from the same person. They replied to my ISO on TBP and gave me a list. I paid about 50% cover price, which was better than any price I was seeing elsewhere. Didn't want digest books, so wanted the full size hardcovers.

So I just got in:

Bestiary 2
Bestiary 3
Advanced Players Guide
Secrets of Magic
Guns & Gear
Dark Archive
Lost Omens Character Guide
Lost Omens Ancestry Guide
Lost Omens World Book
Book of the Dead
Gods & Magic
Legends
Pathfinder Society Guide
The Mwangi Expanse
The Grand Bazaar
Absalom, City of Omens
Monsters of Myth
Knights of Lastwall
Malevolence
 
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Why:shock:? We never had any issue with running from a book that wasn't a slim paperback...and the first game* we ran from a dead tree book was GURPS.
It's got many good qualities, but slim it ain't and never have been:shade:!

I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a GURPS book in the flesh!

No reason why one couldn’t use a thick hardback, merely that there are cheaper and better “UI” for TTRPGs.

IIRC, GURPS 1st ed was softback and not too long per book--2 books and 60-90 pages each (plus a book of charts and another of scenarios).
 
A bit late to the party, but just pre-ordered Absolute Power (both books and the screen) along with the Tri-Stat generic book. I've already received the PDFs and am digging the rules. It's like getting back in touch with an old friend and finding that you can pick right back up and move forward.

One of my favorite campaigns used Silver Age Sentinels. Even though that wrapped up about fifteen years ago, one of the players is part of my current group. We've been texting for two days now getting all giddy about running a sequel!
 
IIRC, GURPS 1st ed was softback and not too long per book--2 books and 60-90 pages each (plus a book of charts and another of scenarios).
My first encounter with GURPS was the boxed set, it had three different characters on the front, a barbarian and space man and something else, at least that is my memory of it…

edit to add, I found it!
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This arrived the other day from Kickstarter. A funnel scenario in the form of a humorous and brutal tournament consisting of mini games in a fun boxset full of great looking components. DCC fans, you know you need this!

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I haven't had a chance to play this but I have the pdf and it looks fun.

It also comes in a 5e version. The company put out free rules for 5e funnel characters which I have used - they work as intended.
 
IIRC, GURPS 1st ed was softback and not too long per book--2 books and 60-90 pages each (plus a book of charts and another of scenarios).
I wouldn't know. I think I've seen one GURPS 2e supplement, but no core books before 3e:shade:.
 
Oh, the rabbit holes we fall down and follow...

While checking out comics for inspiration for my upcoming Absolute Power campaign, I stumbled across Count Crowley: Reluctant Monster Hunter. Wow, was this made for me!
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See, I grew up watching Son of Svengoolie* during the seventies and eighties. My childhood was dominated by the Universal monsters and fifties horror movies. So a comic about a new midnight movie host in the eighties who reluctantly becomes part of a cabal of monster fighters is brand new nostalgia (if that makes sense).

The big smile on my face (combined with the fact that my laser printer is working again) meant it was high time to purchase the full version of This Defiant Earth!

This Defiant Earth is the RPG of fifties sci-fi and horror movies! Its rules really capture the genre without resorting to meta frameworks or devolving into parody. Plus, check out some of the art!

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Looks like it's time for the group to continue the adventures of El Caliente, luchador singing heartthrob and monster fighter!


*Now just "Svengoolie," seen every Saturday night on MeTV!
 
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  • GURPS Basic Set, First Edition: Characters
  • GURPS Basic Set, First Edition: Campaigns
  • GURPS Basic Set, Second Edition: Characters
  • GURPS Basic Set, Second Edition: Campaigns
  • Man to Man: Fantasy Combat from GURPS,
  • GURPS Fantasy (first edition)
  • GURPS Bestiary
  • GURPS High-Tech (first edition)
  • GURPS Horror (first edition)
  • GURPS Space (first edition)
  • GURPS Japan (first edition)
  • Autoduel (first edition)
  • GURPS Horseclans
  • GURPS Humanx,
  • GURPS Bili the Axe - Up Harzburk!,
  • GURPS Fantasy Harkwood
  • GURPS The Old Stone Fort
  • GURPS Orcslayer
  • GURPS Space: Unnight
  • GURPS Zombietown U.S.A.
 
My first encounter with GURPS was the boxed set, it had three different characters on the front, a barbarian and space man and something else, at least that is my memory of it…

edit to add, I found it!
View attachment 48614
I picked up the old boxed set due to a recommendation in a thread here at the Pub. It's excellent. I snagged a copies of both the Bestiary and Fantasy supplements for it too. It's on the short list now. It's interesting how the armour rules have changed since then. I think I prefer the 2e version, but perhaps it doesn't play as well as the 4e armour rules. You can make a basic melee character pretty quickly. I haven't tried making a spellcaster yet, but it does seem ti be significantly more involved.
 
I picked up the old boxed set due to a recommendation in a thread here at the Pub. It's excellent. I snagged a copies of both the Bestiary and Fantasy supplements for it too. It's on the short list now. It's interesting how the armour rules have changed since then. I think I prefer the 2e version, but perhaps it doesn't play as well as the 4e armour rules. You can make a basic melee character pretty quickly. I haven't tried making a spellcaster yet, but it does seem ti be significantly more involved.
It’s not handy to grab and take a photo of but the supplement that really clicked with me was GURPS Horror, I have the one with a skeleton in a trench coat and fedora coming through a door with a knife on the cover, I think the cover is brown.
 
IIRC, GURPS 1st ed was softback and not too long per book--2 books and 60-90 pages each (plus a book of charts and another of scenarios).
Well, the GURPS 1e Basic Set was not only softback, the two rule books had paper covers no thicker than the pages inside. But it came in a boxed set, with several other things in the box (maps, counters, reference charts, adventures, etc).

The GURPS 2e Basic Set is practically the same boxed set, and the two rule books had blue & white paper covers that were thicker than the pages inside.

The GURPS 3e Basic Set came as a single book, either in softback or glorious hardback.

The GURPS 4e Basic Set is back to two books (and added color art) because it jammed in several kitchen sinks full of optional stuff.
 
I backed this too. I can't wait for the actual books to come out.
Getting them in print proved too expensive so I went for the pdf only. I may still pick up the print versions if I ever see them in a European (web)store.
 
This arrived today, another KS project whose hardcopy was long delayed due to Covid impact on production. So much so I completely forgot about it.

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Well, at least the cover does look intriguing. I wouldn't have guessed it to be an RPG book, that's for sure:thumbsup:!
 
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