CLOSED[Call of Cthulhu]-No Man's Land: WWI Horror!

[Yakumo]

This is an official Call for Players for this Call of Cthulhu campaign set during World War I.

Introduction to the No Man's Land

The Great War:
It is 1918, for four years Europe has been entangled in The Great War, the bloodiest conflict in history. With all of the technical innovations, automatic weapons, gases, air power, and industrial mass production, they have created The Western Front: Hell on earth for the millions of soldiers who had fought and died there. To some it seemed as if the worlds itself was ending. The deadliness and barbarity of the conflict was staggering; at the battle of Somme in 1916, the British lost 60,000 men on the firstday, the total casualties for the offensive ran over a million men.

"The war ceased to have a purpose and went on for its own sake, as a contest of endurance."
- J.P Taylor, historian

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive:
In 1918 the Allied and Central powers were still deadlocked, engulfed in trench warfare. Exhausted and on the verge of collapse, the armies of Europe were relieved with the arrival of the Americans, who would tip the balance of the war.
In early September, General John "Black Jack" Pershing's army had resounding success in southern France and was hoping to follow it up with the daring assault into the Argonne Forest along the Meuse river. An effort to crack the Hindenburg line.
This last great American offensive began on September 26th, 1918. The 77th Infantry division was ordered into the Argonne where it immediately too heavy losses and stalled, gaining only 5 miles in 6 days of heavy fighting.
Fearing the worst, on October 2nd, 1918, General Pershing ordered the exhausted and pinned down 77th to advance in spite of their left flanks obvious vulnerability. Under extreme protest, the division moved out and two of its battalions, led by Major Charles Whittlesey and Captain George McMurtry, found their place in history as the famous "Lost Battalion".


You are among these men. 308th Regiment, 77th Infantry, and you are starting to learn that war isn't quite what it seems or what daddy made it out to be.
---------------------------------------

The game will be a little break from the ordinary highly investigation based CofC. This is going to be a *slightly* (hah) more action oriented Call of Cthluhu game. It is a campaign that can be expanded into further adventures after the war if the players wish.

No Man's Land follows the investigators (soldiers) of 2nd Platoon and their role in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

All Players of any level of experience are welcome to join the game, hardened veterans to people who don't have any books.

Players will make soldiers with special rules (Provided later) or I can pre-generate the soldiers upon request.

I'm looking for 7 players tops, Posting dedication of maybe once every 2 days, more if possible. I will run with less players though.

Player List:
1. TheUdjat
2. MaestroXC
3. Anoba
4. Badasterysk
+1 more

The game is currently closed, but there will be opportunity for others to join in the game, and opportunity for current players to replace dead/insane Soldiers.

[TheUdjat]

Aw, man. I've wanted to play this campaign for ages! Awesome!

Count me in.

[MaestroXC]

I'm in there like swimwear.

[Yakumo]

Great to see you guys in on this. I'll start working on how to create a character for this particular adventure soon.

[MaestroXC]

4d6, drop the lowest?

[Yakumo]

Not quite, I think I'll be using the same rolls as we did for the Masks game as opposed to Tabloid truths' 32 point buy in.
One of the reasons why I am torn is that there are extra rules for when you join the military. I'd like to know Which players enlisted and which were conscripted. Also, if they are enlisted, how many years they have been in the military.
There are also rules for whether or not you are trained as an Infantry officer.

I think I'll do what Theudjat did as well. I will roll two sets of Investigator stats for each player, I'll send them the stats and they can arrange them how they wish stay within the confines of "No EDU above 18 and no Size Below 8"
After they arrange the statistics I want a response from the player saying what rolls they put where and what occupation they want (Before they joined the military, or if they were a professional soldier) given that I will then tell them how many bonus skill points they get specifically for some soldier related skills. (and if they had been trained as an officer if they wished)

[anoba]

I'm in. Can I still play a former national park ranger? He's definitely a conscript.

October 1, 1918: Randy pauses in the trenches and wistfully wishes himself a happy 18th birthday. He also wishes his beloved Yosemite National Park a happy birthday. The park was exactly 10 years older than him. He closes his eyes and imagines the icy cool waters of Mirror Lake washing away the dirt of war, the scent of pine purging the omnipresent tang of mustard gas. A random gun shot and a whinnying horse break his reverie. I will return.

[TheUdjat]

Be sure to reread those char-gen parameters, as it's only Edu above 18.

A suggestion: As well as giving soldiers something for being soldiers, perhaps you should provide incentive to be conscripted? Else maybe randomize it. Seems a bit slanted to reward players just for choosing to be career folks, and it would be logical to assume non-soldiers picked up a number of skills related to their specific occupations (instead of soldiering).

I honestly don't know how the campaign works, but I'd do it by having people pick occupations, as normal, and distributing things that way. All characters would get a certain 'boost' to combat-related stats to indicate conscription training (the career military guys get this to keep them on par, basically ensuring that they will do better than conscripted folks)

Just my thoughts on the matter. It ultimately probably won't matter much, since things in Cthulhu have a tendency to be so far above human comprehension to fight them that a 20% better Rifle skill ain't gonna do much good.

[Yakumo]

Very nice, I'll send you all out your rolls so you guys can get started and some ideas.

Seems like you have a good idea for a start on the background, I want to point out to everyone that you will all be in very much the same position and equipped fairly the same (someone might have a BAR or some automatic weapon, but generally you will probably have the same rifles) so I want to point out that a good and well fleshed out background will be key for helping you feel your character and how he will react to war.

[Yakumo]

Actually you got it exactly, how it works is this: conscripted folk get their normal occupations for their original skill points etc. Then I do some fancy globetrotter math and they get bonus skillpoints (not too much really) that go to specific soldiering skills as an indication of their training. Professional soldiers will obviously be better at their jobs, but the bonus they get is based on the number of years they are in service.

Also anyone can be an officer provided they have the education for it and the luck to be trained in it (if they are conscripted.)

Also you got me, only EDU can go above 18, but im still right about the size.

I'm thinking of giving only one set of rolls but doing one extra dice roll for each dropping the lowest, because there really aren't second chances for characters, it will be a little bit difficult to get new soldiers into the game, so I want the soldiers who start to have a little bump so they don't drop cause as the rolls turned out they only have like 8 HP or something, because there is going to be fighting, and people will be shot.

[Yakumo]

Also keep in mind that this campaign was originally done with pregenerated and tailored characters. Some skills you might want to look into, French (You are in france so you can justify that), Latin (its pre vatican 2, catholic mass is still done in latin, maybe you picked some up) and Tracking.

Soldier's Skills:
Bayonet
Hide
First Aid
Sneak
Rifle
Machine Gun
Mechanical Repair
One Speciality

Officer's Skills:
Rifle
Conceal
First Aid
Handgun
Hide
Listen
Sneak
Throw
Law
Persuade
Navigate
One Speciality

Specialities:
Dodge
Block
Conceal
Explosives
Martial Arts
Navigation
Operate Heavy Machinery
Spot hidden
Throw
*Military Science
*Cryptography
(If there is something else you would prefer let me know)
*Officer only

[Yakumo]

When distributing skillpoints, use Theudjat's bases for the skills found here: kmansadventures.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=cocmasks&action=display&thread=6090
He set up a system that uses your stats as a means of finding a base, and I feel that it is more reliable.

Although! In the case of your weapon skills, if your stats come up shorter than these assigned bases, use these instead. (If they are higher, use them). This is to show the absolute base amount of skill that the Army allows its soldier to have while going out to war, a representation of your basic training.

Weapon/Combat Skills
Axe - 20%
Blackjack - 40%
Club - 25%
Knife - 25%
Saber - 15%
Sword - 20%
Handgun - 20%
Machine Gun - 15%
Rifle - 25%
Shotgun - 30%
Submachine Gun - 15%
Fist/Punch - 50%
Head Butt - 10%
Kick - 25%
Grapple - 25%

Here is how your skills will work:

If you are Conscripted: You will create a person as per usual, whatever occupation you wish them to have. Assign the occupational and free skills as you normally would. And then you are conscripted into the army for the war. If you wish to do officer's training and have a EDU of 15 or above, let me know, it is a separate roll. If not, your character gets Xd10's bonus skill points. X= Idea/10 rounded down any fractions. You may apply these points however you wish to your Military skills. The Maximum you can give to one skill is 20%

If you are a Professional soldier (i.e that was your job normally): Create your investigator as per normal and for every year you are in the military distribute 10% amongst your occupational skills to show experience gained from that time. (Also note that you can choose to be an officer if you wish professionally)

Anoba asked me to create his investigator for him so I will be posting an example character here for everyone to see what it will be like.

Any questions?

[TheUdjat]

1. What's the base for Bayonet?

2. You method for additional points due to conscription is strange, and low. Wouldn't it always be '1d10', as Int/10 cannot possibly be greater than 1.8, which would be rounded down to 1? 1d10 points is not a lot to work with.

Possibly alternative: Start the game and consider each military skill 'checked', possibly twice. Each player will roll to see if their skills increase, and then roll a 1d10 if they go up (twice, if they go up twice). This keeps you to your 'no more than 20%' mark, and seems fairly in-character, as it represents the characters trying to learn soldiering skills through experience.

Professional soldiers/officers should also get the same benefit, to keep things fair.

Just my thoughts on the matter - take or leave as you like.

[Yakumo]

1. Base for Bayonet is 25%.

2. It is Idea/10. Not Int/10. So say you have and intelligence of 10. 10*5 is 50, your Idea roll. 50/10 is 5. so you get 5d10. Does that sound more fair and correct?

Professional soldiers get the automatic 10% bonus for every year in the military, so if they have 4 years under their belt, they have 40% to distribute however they like (No limitations for assignment, so they can assign all 40 to something if they want)
I'm not sure, but I'm thinking of making Professionals take a SAN check for every year as well. 0/1d3 per year from dealing with constant stress.

The only problem I see with you alternative is that since as a conscript your army skills are so low, you are almost guaranteed to make the check each time and you could rack up a fair amount of points for all of your skills. Being able to assign them, in my eyes, allows you to better develop what it is your soldier excelled at and what he just barely passed at.

[TheUdjat]

Jun 18, 2008 7:28:01 GMT -5 Yakumo said:

1. Base for Bayonet is 25%.

2. It is Idea/10. Not Int/10. So say you have and intelligence of 10. 10*5 is 50, your Idea roll. 50/10 is 5. so you get 5d10. Does that sound more fair and correct?

Professional soldiers get the automatic 10% bonus for every year in the military, so if they have 4 years under their belt, they have 40% to distribute however they like (No limitations for assignment, so they can assign all 40 to something if they want)
I'm not sure, but I'm thinking of making Professionals take a SAN check for every year as well. 0/1d3 per year from dealing with constant stress.

The only problem I see with you alternative is that since as a conscript your army skills are so low, you are almost guaranteed to make the check each time and you could rack up a fair amount of points for all of your skills. Being able to assign them, in my eyes, allows you to better develop what it is your soldier excelled at and what he just barely passed at.

Oh, Idea. Yeah, I missed that. So basically, 1/2 Int in d10's. Gotcha. That makes a bit more sense.

And you're right, I think statistically one would raise about 3/4 of their skills due to them being low. And they might go up a lot... but probably not.

Alright, I'll get to work on my character. Thanks for the clarification.

[Yakumo]

This is a little example of what your character post should look like. PM your character to me with a brief background description before you post it and we'll go over it, in the mean time I'll get K-man to add No Man's Land main section to the Call of Cthulhu Boards.

Investigator Name: Private Randy somethingorother - Anoba
Occupation: Wannabe Park Ranger / Soldier
Nationality: American
Sex / Age: Male / 18 (October 1st 1900)
Birthplace:
Colleges/degrees: Did not attend
Mental Disorders: none

Characteristics & Rolls

Str 9	Dex 13	Int 15	Idea 75
Con 17	App 4	Pow 14	Luck 70
Siz 10	San 70	Edu 12	Know 60
			Presence 20
99-Cthulhu	Mythos 01	Damage	Bonus 0

Sanity Points

Ins	ane	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48
49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61	62	63	64	65
66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79	80	81	82
83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99

Magic Points

Unc	ons	cio	us	0	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14

[/color][/td][td]15[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]17[/td][td]18[/td][td]19[/td][td]20[/td][td]21[/td][td]22[/td][td]23[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]24[/td][td]25[/td][td]26[/td][td]27[/td][td]28[/td][td]29[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]31[/td][td]32[/td][td]33[/td][td]34[/td][td]35[/td][td]36[/td][td]37[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Hit Points______Unconscious

De	ad	-2	-1	0	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14

[/color][/td][td]15[/td][td]16[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]17[/td][td]18[/td][td]19[/td][td]20[/td][td]21[/td][td]22[/td][td]23[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]24[/td][td]25[/td][td]26[/td][td]27[/td][td]28[/td][td]29[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]31[/td][td]32[/td][td]33[/td][td]34[/td][td]35[/td][td]36[/td][td]37[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Skills:

Park Ranger Skills:

Astronomy: (2%)	30%
Botany: (2%)	40%
First Aid: (30%)	55%
Law: (12%)	25%
Listen: (30%)	60%
Natural History: (2%)	40%
Navigation: (15%)	70%
Persuade: (8%)	46%
Rifle: (26%)	45%
Spot Hidden: (30%)	60%
Track: (15%)	65%

Optional Skills:

Dodge: (26%)	40%
Geology: (2%)	30%
Knife: (26%)	40%
Martial Arts: (8%)	10%

Soldier Skills:

Bayonet: (25%)	25%
First Aid: (30%)	55%
Hide: (26%)	26%
Machine Gun: (15%)	15%
Mechanical Repair: (30%)	30%
Rifle: (26%)	45%
Sneak: (26%)	26%
**Navigation: (15%)	70%

** - Navigation is Randy's Speciality

Combat Skills:

Bayonet: (20%)	20%
Handgun: (26%)	26%
Knife: (26%)	40%
Machine Gun: (15%)	15%
Rifle: (26%)	45%
Rifle Butt (Club): (25%)	25%
Shotgun: (30%)	30%
Submachine Gun: (17%)	17%
Fist/Punch: (50%)	50%
Headbutt: (10%)	10%
Kick: (25%)	25%
Grapple: (25%)	25%

Equipment:

Personality:

Background:

[Yakumo]

That's what I'm looking for essentially. I'll give you guys a list of things that US Soldiers had to carry, as well as weapons for the squad, that you guys can pick amongst yourselves. The list will depend on the number of people in the game but right now I'm looking at: 6 US M1917 30-ought-sixes, 1 BAR, Maybe 1 Colt .45 (officer only), and Maybe 1 hand grenade.

Also, I made a mistake, there are 2 bayonet skills. 1. is fixed on your rifle, thats base 20%. 2. is in your hand, which you use your knife skill for.

Dmg for fixed bayonet is 1d8+1+db
dmg for hand bayonet is 1d6+1+db

[anoba]

Yakumo, thanks for the character. I'll work on my background.

[Yakumo]

I'd really like to get one, maybe two more players before we get started for this.

[Badasterysk]

I've never played CoC before, so this game better be awesome.

Is anyone playing a character with medical background?