Session IV, Part II

Since the party is decidedly not enthusiastic about murdering the Reverend Mother Guinan, Gouverneur Đào (陶) explains that the Vietnamese government believes Guinan will soon be a big thorn in their side.  By way of exposition, the Gouverneur pulls out some maps to show the PCs how Fantasy Vietnam has grown during the recent past:

250 AD:

350 AD:

Since winning independence from China a century ago, Vietnam has expanded steadily southward,  first conquering the Kingdom of Champa and then seizing the Mekong Delta from the Khymer.

Here, as DM, I've done some mixing of real world dates to better fit my campaign, while still trying to remain mostly true to the general spirit and tone of history.


The Vietnamese government's problem is that Guinan will disrupt their plans to subjugate the Cham people in the Central Highlands because she'll soon be investigating and exposing their oppression of the Cham.

The divine rules of this setting prevent genocide and ethnic cleaning:

Instead, conquerors are supposed to only use the slow, grinding path of assimilation.  However, Gouverneur Trần (陳), a relative of the Emperor and newly appointed to the Central Highlands province, is pushing new policies to take things to the edge of the rules.


The PCs still aren't excited about murdering the cleric, so they ask if they can solve the problem some other way.  Đào, who privately disapproves of Gouverneur Trần and who has taken a much more conciliatory path in the Mekong Delta province, agrees.

Aleena mentions that her uncle, Father Gui, is Guinan's immediate superior in the Church.  Paying the Grand Inquisitor a visit, Father Gui is delighted and somewhat surprised that his beloved niece is still alive:

Consequently, Father Gui immediately agrees to the party's request to delay the Reverend Mother long enough to pull off the PC's scam, and orders Guinan to spend a week training new Inquistors before heading to the Central Highlands.

The PCs then blatantly lie to Papa Midnite and Gouverneur Đào, despite pointed questioning by Midnite, that the problem is permanently solved, so Mlle Nguyễn is freed.

Zakalwe tells Mlle Nguyễn about their double-cross and that she needs to immediately leave town forever before the authorities realize that Reverend Mother Guinan is still going to the Central Highlands.

[As Mlle Nguyễn, in my terrible fake teenage girl voice] I say, "But what about my boyfriend?!?"

[As the nameless Magic-User, snarky] S says, "What, you mean the guy that led you into a life of crime?"

This convinces Nguyễn to leave town.

Session IV, Part I

With three sessions under our belt to see how my Olde School Dungeons & Dragons house rules run in actual play (I'm happy so far in terms of speed, convenience, and genre emulation, but it's still a work in progress), now I start shifting the campaign more toward world-building for Fantasy Vietnam.

D is unable to make Session IV, but in his place, S, a new player, joins the group!  Like K, S has some prior RPG experience (Pathfinder) but she starts this campaign as a complete Olde School rookie, playing the nameless Magic-User:

• Str 12, Int 18, Wil 15, Dex 13, Con 17, Cha 17
• Base HP: 9
• Proficiencies: Additional encounter HD, Spear
• Skill Points: Has one point each in Investigation, Repair, Research, Medicine, Psychology, Tracking, Bureaucracy, Misdirection and Negotiation

Also, since K's character is now 2nd level, he selects Zakalwe as the formerly nameless Fighter's moniker!

[As DM] I say, "That's pretty cool!  Maybe Zakalwe or his family are originally from the Roman Empire's north African provinces."


After saving the village of Orlane, and returning to Vĩnh Long, the PCs are visited by Messr Nguyễn (阮), the Public Sanitation worker that they saved in Session I.  His daughter has fallen in with a group of misguided teenagers, the Chex Mix Gang:

Attempting to become serious criminals, the gang was caught trying to rob Papa Midnite, a visiting dignitary from the Aksum Empire:

After the death of Bargle, I went back to Old Reliable: Papa Midnite, named after the character from Hellblazer but otherwise wholly different, is the PCs' most hated opponent from our last campaign.

[OOC] K says, "That guy was totally evil!"


[OOC] I laugh and say, "I thought it was more that he was a competitor of the PCs who kept putting one over on the party."

K chuckles and tells S how Papa Midnite forced the party to flee their home continent in our last campaign. 

In this campaign, since Fantasy Vietnam is trying to convince the Aksumites to become trading partners and Papa Midnite will be influential in that decision, the prosecutor is throwing the book at Mlle Nguyễn and her friends, and will send them to Horrific Death Prison, unless the PCs intervene.


After a few moments of indecision by the PCs about how to proceed, I suggest, "Maybe you should start by talking with Papa Midnite?"

[OOC] K says, "Well, he can't be an asshat in all realities, right?"

The PCs meet with Papa Midnite and ask if there's something that they can do to get him to drop the charges against Mlle Nguyễn.  Midnite says that Gouverneur Đào (陶) is looking for someone to do "some sensitive work of a highly confidential nature."  If the PCs can do this job for him, Đào will pass on the favor to Papa Midnite.


Meeting with the Gouverneur  Đào tells the PCs that he's looking for someone to discretely murder a high-ranking cleric, the Reverend Mother Guinan:

RPG Review: Call of Cthulhu, 6th Edition (2004)

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

With Halloween around the corner and with the release of the mostly excellent Alien: Isolation (2014) (there are many, many things that the game gets right, but the ending was disappointing for several reasons), I thought I would take my own Olde School look back on a terrifying classic, Call of Cthulhu, the seminal work in the field of Horror RPGs.

If you've been following my 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons homebrew campaign on this blog, you might have noticed the various Lovecraftian references, which is not surprising since this classic horror RPG is also a big source of inspiration, along with AD&D 1E, for my house rules.  In fact, the Save versus Fear is a modification of the iconic SAN mechanic.

Named after H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and drawing upon the eponymous Cthulhu Mythos, Call of Cthulhu (or "CoC" for short) is mostly true to the source material as the PCs (aka "Investigators") take on the role of ordinary people struggling against various dark forces.  I love this setup, as the power level of the game presents real opportunities for true horror, as well as true (if potentially bleak) heroism.

While this review specifically covers the 6th Edition, Call of Cthulhu, published by Chaosium and powered by the Basic Role-Playing (BRP) game engine, has remained mostly unchanged over the years since the publication of the 1st Edition of Call of Cthulhu in 1981, which is a testament to the solidity of the BRP ruleset.  Indeed, CoC is one of the best and most influential of the second generation of roleplaying games.

Compared to the contemporaneous AD&D 1E, Call of Cthulhu is faster and simpler game.  It's not quite as streamlined as a modern design, but still easily playable and has a quick learning curve.  In true Olde School tradition, stats are randomly generated, though then there's a point distribution element, based on an Investigator's Intelligence and Education, for skills.  As you might expect, using the RAW some Investigators can have far more skill points than others, so for my own CoC games, I house rule that all Investigators start with the same number of skill points, regardless of Intelligence and Education scores.

With a good Game Master  (aka "Keeper"), the gameplay can be evocative, tense and terrifying as the Investigators explore the mysteries and face the challenges of the Cthulhu Mythos.  As I mentioned above, PCs are fragile (both mentally and physically) and I really like that this leads to more of a Sneak-and-Peak approach, rather than Search-and-Destroy.  This has influenced my campaigns such that the PCs' typical backup plan for any genre is to run away.

The book itself is filled with good advice and, unlike AD&D 1E, isn't written in High Gygaxian, so the writing is clear and to the point.  The book also has lots of neat tidbits to add color and atmosphere (such as a timeline of weird events), as well as random fun things.

So, if you're a roleplaying fan of Lovecraft or Horror generally, I'd suggest taking a look at this tried and true classic!

SC's Parting Shot: 8 of 10

I'll leave you with this wonderfully creepy music video by Gotye, which is how I nowadays envision a Cthulhu cult:

Happy (early) Halloween!

Session III, Part IV

The asshat farmer's look of smugness turns to shock and then anger as Rain sheathes his swords and enters the hut.  It turns out that the not-cultist was a member of the original elite L'Eau Noire team sent to Orlane, but Rain's group was ambushed by a Shoggoth summoned by the Mask of Nyarlathotep.  The Mask thought that he had converted Rain, the only survivor, but the brainwashing didn't take for some reason.

Rain is, of course, my reskinned version of Derek Desleigh from N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God, whom I thought was too generic.  I'm also a bit skeptical of Desleigh's scam of the cultists, seeing as there's a number of ways it could go sideways.


Rain decides to help the party and the PCs also recruit Ranme for the boss fight.  Leaving the asshat farmer bound and gagged, the party heads to the fort in the swamp.

K asks, "How and why did they build a fort in the swamp?"

D makes the obligatory Monty Python joke.


[As DM] I ask, "So how do you want to get into the fort?"

The party decides to pretend to be Rain's prisoners.  After a successful Charisma roll, the cultists and their pet zombies pay the PCs no heed and Rain leads the party to the Mask:

As the party approaches the Mask's chamber, they notice several statutes on the ground with contorted with looks of shock and pain.  Asking, the cultists explain that the Mask has a new bodyguard, a Medusa.


After Rain presents the "prisoners," the Mask laughs evilly and starts his Bond Villain speech:

As the Mask is pontificating, the nameless Thief slips his bonds, hides in shadows and backstabs the Mask!

Although injured, the Mask survives and the Medusa takes off her burlap sack to fight the nameless Thief.  Meanwhile the nameless Fighter and Aleena have a two-on-one majority against the Mask as Rain and Ranme fight off the rest of the cultists.

The nameless Thief fights the Medusa without looking and misses!

The nameless Fighter misses!

Aleena crit fails and drops her weapon!

The Medusa misses!

The Mask casts Mirror Image.

K asks Ranme to cast Web over the Medusa, and a mass of sticky fibers envelop her (and the nameless Thief) preventing her gaze attacks.


The remaining melee combatants keep missing and Aleena crit fails again and drops her weapon!

K asks Ranme to cast Stinking Cloud, and the noxious fumes prevent the Mask from casting Hold Person.

As his mirror images are dispelled, the Mask flees for the secret door but the nameless Fighter overtakes the still gagging avatar and cuts him down from behind!

The Mask of Nyarlathotep is slain!

The Medusa surrenders and leaves, as do the now confused ex-cultists.  Among the treasure, the party finds a Ring of Feather Fall, which the nameless Thief takes, and a Wand of Lightning Bolts, which the nameless Fighter takes.

For a job well done, I credit the PCs with experience for overcoming two major challenges:

* solving the mystery of Orlane, and

* defeating the Mask of Nyarlathotep.

I let the players know that I particularly liked their creative use of the spells Ventriloquism (to confuse Gendarme Wiggum) and Web (to nullify the Medusa's gaze).

This takes our intrepid PCs up to 2nd level, so they are nameless no longer!

Session III, Part III

After an awkward silence, the wiry guy introduces himself as Rain.  The nameless Fighter mentions that Rain was watching him, which the latter denies.  After a couple more minutes of questioning, during which Rain is nervous and evasive, the two part ways.  The nameless Fighter does notice, however, that Rain is speaking Việt with a Korean accent.

Now, given a date of 350 AD, they would probably actually be speaking Proto Việt Mường, but I call it Việt for convenience.


When the party gets back to the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent, Monsieur Burns is waiting for them with an unpleasant smile:

Burns says menacingly that things could suddenly take a turn for the worse for the PCs if they remain in Orlane and that he'd be willing to... contribute to the party's travel expenses (to the tune of twice what they are being paid by L'Eau Noire) if the PCs leave town tonight.

Thinking it over, the PCs agree, deciding to go after the Mask before the cultists have a chance to realize that they are being double-crossed.  As the sun sets, the party selects a route out of Orlane taking them past the asshat farmer's house, with the same Gendarme Adjoints from the day before still following them.


The nameless Thief casts Sleep, and one of the Gendarme Adjoints (the one who stepped out of the General Store) passes out:

The nameless Fighter grabs the other Gendarme Adjoint and chokes him out, but before the other Gendarme Adjoint goes unconscious, he mutters, "You damn cultists…"

Realizing that they have taken out a potential ally, the PCs tie up and gag the Gendarme Adjoint who stepped out of the General Store and leave a note on the other one saying, "Your partner is a cultist."


Quickly, the party ambushes and kidnaps the asshat farmer.  However, the latter seems strangely unperturbed.

When the PCs reach the hermit's hut, they barely avoid being zapped by a lightning bolt as Ranme  runs out and screams, "You won't get me this time, Cat Dude!"

The party manages to calm down the half-insane wizard by reminding Ranme about how much he's Winning.  The hermit nods sagely and says, "I'm so tired of pretending my life isn't perfect and bitching and just winning every second."

Looking at the asshat farmer, Ranme quickly notes, "Yup, this is the work of a Mask of Nyarlathotep."

As the party interrogates the asshat farmer, the latter abruptly laughs maniacally and screams at a figure that the PCs suddenly notice standing at the door to the hut, "Kill them all!"