Shireling
A Servant of King and Country
So guys, for the next few projects I want to work on highly developed settings without frivolity. The RP I've been working on has been in my brain for a while, but I have just now begun to put it down on paper. Seeing as HP Lovecraft is one of my favorite writers ever, hands down, (because who doesn't love a little gratuitous racism with their horror fiction?) I wanted to do something with his setting, but I also thought the Cthulhu Mythos was particularly promising for this type of RP, as there is a precedent for party-based role playing games set in Lovecraft's mythos.
Another thing I wanted to give the RP was a dice system that is simple enough to grasp for people who really aren't into that sort of thing while also giving the characters a palpable feeling of danger/death. I could have just appropriated a dice system, but honestly I wanted to make my own which I know some people view as plebian but it is what it is.
So the basic premise: there's a government secret agency in the 1920's that goes around killing Lovecraftian baddies (not straight up murdering deities, of course) in the name of 'Merika. Through a series of mission-based chapters, the characters piece together and ultimately have to stop a very credible threat to the human race. It's a stock-plot, but its tried and true. For the RP, it will be based heavily on the actual stories and much of the mythos will be canon in the RP. For example, the characters will participate in the Raid on Innsmouth (as detailed in 'The Shadow over Innsmouth') and the police raids on the cultists in Brooklyn as detailed in 'The Horror at Red Hook'. They will also be involved in non-canonical quests like clearing the Martense Manor from 'The Lurking Fear' of ghouls and defending Arkham, Massachusetts from various and sundry creatures.
Alongside the quests, which will focus on exploration, detective work, and combat, the characters will also have opportunities to interact with one another in "vignettes," short scenes that they produce on their own from their own separate collaboration and are added between quests to provide narrative depth. This avoids the plot stalling out between quests and also gives the more active players something to do while waiting for the slower ones, to keep interest.
I have a wiki up as well, although it is incomplete. The dice system needs a bit of tweaking, but I have the general outline of everything. I would love to hear what you guys think and see if there's any interest.
The link to the wiki: articleninewiki.simdif.com
Another thing I wanted to give the RP was a dice system that is simple enough to grasp for people who really aren't into that sort of thing while also giving the characters a palpable feeling of danger/death. I could have just appropriated a dice system, but honestly I wanted to make my own which I know some people view as plebian but it is what it is.
So the basic premise: there's a government secret agency in the 1920's that goes around killing Lovecraftian baddies (not straight up murdering deities, of course) in the name of 'Merika. Through a series of mission-based chapters, the characters piece together and ultimately have to stop a very credible threat to the human race. It's a stock-plot, but its tried and true. For the RP, it will be based heavily on the actual stories and much of the mythos will be canon in the RP. For example, the characters will participate in the Raid on Innsmouth (as detailed in 'The Shadow over Innsmouth') and the police raids on the cultists in Brooklyn as detailed in 'The Horror at Red Hook'. They will also be involved in non-canonical quests like clearing the Martense Manor from 'The Lurking Fear' of ghouls and defending Arkham, Massachusetts from various and sundry creatures.
Alongside the quests, which will focus on exploration, detective work, and combat, the characters will also have opportunities to interact with one another in "vignettes," short scenes that they produce on their own from their own separate collaboration and are added between quests to provide narrative depth. This avoids the plot stalling out between quests and also gives the more active players something to do while waiting for the slower ones, to keep interest.
I have a wiki up as well, although it is incomplete. The dice system needs a bit of tweaking, but I have the general outline of everything. I would love to hear what you guys think and see if there's any interest.
The link to the wiki: articleninewiki.simdif.com
