10:02 Modiphius Well I'm chris from Modiphius, we just published the first episode of Achtung! Cthulhu for Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds
10:02 Modiphius Episode 2 is in layout and we have a load of
other RPG's in the works for the Autumn
10:03 Modiphius Achtung! Cthulhu is best described as WW2 with
Tentacles...
10:03 Dan (Oh... please give us a "(done)" when
you're ready for questions.
)
10:03 Modiphius ah...Done
10:03 Modiphius
10:04 Dan Cool. Anyone have any questions, or shall I get
the ball rolling?
10:05 Dan Alrighty then!
10:05 Dan What does A!C do that "standard" CoC
does not?
10:05 Crazy-Cabal Is it similar to Armageddon in that you're
fighting the mythos or is it a more standard CoC game set in WW2?
10:05 Dan (Question pause while Chris addresses those two,
please.)
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10:06 Modiphius WW2 is the backdrop, the Cthulhu mythos is
influencing both sides, there's a secret war as individuals and growing
organisations are influenced or come in to contact with beings or creatures
10:07 Modiphius Often cthulhu get's his hooks in to people on
the allies side as much as the nazi's
10:07 Modiphius and the madness of war is used by Cthulhu's
minions to further their own nefarious goals
10:07 CyanideBreathmint tugs at hair and goes completely MAD at the
Finnish homework.
10:07 Modiphius done
10:07 Dan Is it fundamentally standard CoC in a WW2
setting, or is there more to it than that?
10:08 Dan I seem to recall seeing something about mad
science, for example...
10:08 Dan (CBM: #rpgnet2 is
open for general chat. Thanks!
)
10:09 CyanideBreathmint ((Oh ok. Sorry.))
10:09 Modiphius Yes it is essentially familiar CoC territory, we
describe it as two fisted terrifying WW2 adventures but it's in fact very dark
and terribly dangerous for CoC players
10:09 Dan (No problem!)
10:09 Modiphius What we are doing is not dreaming up mad
science, but extrapolating the rumoured and very real 'mad science' that the
Nazi's were working on
10:10 Dan For your CoC-based adventures, do you make any
adjustments to the standard rules to make it more "two-fisted"?
10:11 Modiphius adding guns to CoC as people will know is hard
for the players, but we actually present plenty of options how to avoid combat
but also suggestions for how to make players a little healthier in the face of
such extensive projectile danger
10:11 Modiphius in case the group want to be a little more gung
ho
10:11 Modiphius the Savage Worlds version certainly provides a
more two fisted approach as SW encourage skirmish play and battles
10:12 Modiphius It's why I chose the two systems as it gives a
wide range of players more options to experience the world
10:12 Modiphius done
10:12 Dan What is the name of the new system that you're
developing for A!C, and what can you tell us about it?
10:13 Modiphius That is Expeditions, it started life after my
experiences introducing a lot of new gamers to RPG's
10:14 Modiphius I often found players struggling with the abstract descriptions of players abilities
10:14 Modiphius and I wanted to build a system that gamers could
use to introduce new friends but also that was an easy goto system when you
were fed up of stats brain burn
10:15 Modiphius Expedition is designed with an RPG system but
also a metagame - kind of like a boardgame in which you move around tiles of a
city putting your expedition together, having encounters and then set off,
hoping you have enough marines, scientists, crew, mechanics etc
10:15 Dirian whups
10:15 Modiphius Characters are built with cards and it takes
literally 30 seconds to draw your character and start the game
10:15 Dan Standard playing cards?
10:16 Modiphius We've found people just 'get it' immediately and
a simple set of attributes and skills on the cards provides a dice pool
10:16 Modiphius we use custom cards - the main bulk are
attributes a bit like aspects 'strong as an ox', 'shoot first ask questions
later'
10:16 Modiphius then life experiences
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10:17 Modiphius these are in civilian, military, occult and
academic roles, a few draw on each pile tells you what you have been doing for
the last few years
10:17 Murazor Counter Strike Global Offensive is a big thing
10:18 Dan Do you have an image of the cards posted
anywhere yet?
10:18 Modiphius and Traveller's chargen was a favourite of mine
so inspired by that there are plenty of misadventure life experiences
10:18 Murazor Literally
10:18 Murazor It fills up the entire front page!
10:18 Dan (Murazor: Q&A in progress
about Achtung! Cthulhu. #rpgnet2 open for general chat.
)
10:18 Murazor (Of Steam)
10:18 Murazor Okay!
10:19 Modiphius We haven't released images yet, we're completing
internal playtesting and in september will be sending out the playtest packs
for people to help us with the next stage
10:19 Modiphius done
10:19 Dan Hmm... So what's the core mechanic?
10:19 Crazy-Cabal Is it just the Cthulhu side of the mythos or are
we getting into the big wide Mythos world? Like Migo are trading tech with the
axis for brains and the tcho tcho are harrying the japanese in china, etc?
10:20 Modiphius A dice pool, four core stats - Body, Mind,
Reflex, Spirit plus skills from life experiences
10:20 Dan (Question pause while Chris catches up, please.)
10:21 Modiphius Crazy-Cabal - there's all kinds of stuff going on the nazi's are doing
everything they can to find 'weapons' they can use against the allies, as are
the Japanese, but in different ways based on their culture
10:21 Modiphius The Allies are not left out of this, there's
people messing with things perhaps they shouldn't and this will cause numerous
problems
10:22 Modiphius We're introduced a new secret mythos Nazi group,
who're going to factor right across the storyline
10:22 Modiphius alongside the obvious Black Sun guys
10:23 Dan I think what CC meant was whether it's all
centered around Cthulhu or whether other Mythos entities are involved.
10:23 Modiphius Back to the mechanic, you build a dice pool from
your relevant stats and skills, get re-rolls for appropriate attributes and aim
for the required number of successes. A critical dice can re-roll your
successes or failures.
10:24 Modiphius Oh yes we're drawing in the whole mythos. In
this explosion of madness on Earth, the various protagonists of the mythos
world are looking for any opportunity to use mankind's war to further their own
goals
10:24 Dan Gotcha.
10:24 Modiphius Cthulhu is obviously a major player, one thing I
should mention though is that we never allow the nazi's to use the mythos as an
excuse for their actions
10:25 Dan Probably a good plan.
10:25 Dan How cinematic is Expeditions?
10:26 Modiphius Expeditions is more pulp, it is being designed
for the Mountains of Madness campaign but we'll be creating a sci-fi and
fantasy version too
10:26 Dan Oh? Interesting...
10:27 Modiphius It's definitely more cinematic, we use Fate
cards to allow specific named events to happen automatically or allow extra
dice on related actions, however you can chain these cards together from
different players to create much bigger heoroic bonues
10:27 Dan Now that sounds cool.
10:27 Dan Doesn't sound like something I could play with
my IRC groups, sadly.
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10:28 Dan What can you tell us about the sci-fi and
fantasy games?
10:29 Murazor transforms into a cat. Sings the Game of Thrones theme song
10:29 Dan (brb -- please continue)
10:29 *** Dan is now known as Dan-brb
10:29 Modiphius We will be doing a book version that doesn't
need cards
10:30 Modiphius The sci-fi and fantasy versions again let you
put together an expedition to adventure in to the unknown, of course the
roleplaying aspect of Expeditions can let you run any kind of adventure but our
metagame let's you actually enjoy the process of building your expedition and
heading out in to the uknown
10:32 Modiphius We're playtested a fantasy version and it played
super fast. The basic set would allow all kinds of heroes to be built and will
come with plenty of opponents and adventures to get you going
10:32 Modiphius done
10:32 *** Dan-brb is now known as Dan
10:32 Dan What will the settings for those be like?
10:33 Modiphius one is called Cimmerian Space, a sci-fi horror
facebook game we are doing the prequel RPG for
10:35 Modiphius The fantasy setting's not been developed yet
10:36 Modiphius so that is probably our next job!
10:36 Dan Heh.
10:37 Modiphius Cimmerian Space is quite standard sci-fi - a
centrist government vs the colonies, lots of conspiracy, aliens, infections and
bio-tech vs cyber tech
10:37 Dan What's the horror aspect?
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10:39 Modiphius There's ancient terrible alien race awakened by
accident
10:39 Dan Of the Great Old One sort?
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10:40 GrimGent Eventide.
10:40 Modiphius you could say that, we don't, we leave that up
to GM's to decide, the race is extremely ancient, and incredibly dark and
twisted
10:41 Modiphius they begin to infect and take over colonies and
even organisations in the central worlds
10:41 Modiphius they way it happens is horrific yet seductive
10:42 Modiphius and when discovered all hell breaks loose
10:42 Modiphius done
10:42 Dan (Howdy, GG! Q&A about Achtung! Cthulhu in
progress. #rpgnet2 open for general chat, if you prefer.)
10:42 Dan To what does "Cimmerian" refer in this
context?
10:45 Modiphius Cimmerian refers to darkness - it comes from the
mythical people described by Homer as inhabiting a land of perpetual darkness
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10:46 Agamemnon2 meh
10:46 Dan Ah. I wasn't aware of that. I figured it must be
a REH reference.
10:46 Dan (I imagine you'll get a lot of that.
)
10:46 Modiphius of course
10:47 Agamemnon2 I gotta stop playing MTG. Being this angry all
the time can't be good for me
10:47 Dan (Q&A in progress, Ag. #rpgnet2 open for general chat.)
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10:48 Dan Do you see A!C as a "natural"
progression from the 1920s CoC setting, or do you see it as something of its
own thing, like Cthulhutech?
10:50 Modiphius Period wise there's not a huge leap, but
culturally there's quite a difference, the world is changing fast by the 1940's
10:51 Modiphius We've not had to change the CoC rules too much,
we've got some nice additions to reflect the world war
10:51 Dan Hmm... Please finish your thought, but I
probably should clarify.
10:52 *** phgaw|bed is now known as phgaw
10:52 phgaw howdy, pardners
10:52 Dan (Howdy, pghaw! Achtung! Cthulhu Q&A in
progress, #rpgnet2 open for general chat.
)
10:53 Dan Oh... Were you done, Chris?
10:53 Modiphius lol sorry yes!
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10:53 Dan No problem.
10:54 Dan To clarify:
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10:54 Dan I'm wondering whether A!C is set in the same
"world" as "standard" CoC...
10:54 Dan ...or whether it's in its own setting.
10:55 GrimGent How hidden is the Mythos in the setting? More
like CoC or "shoggoths on the battlefield"?
10:55 Dan (Howdy, Kaiu! Q&A for Achtung! Cthulhu in
progress. #rpgnet2 open for general chat.)
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10:56 Modiphius ah! well essentially it is it's own standalone
setting, we do draw on the world of HP Lovecraft but not necessarily the
chaosium setting but there's nothing stopping GM's from including it
10:56 Dan (Howdy, JP!)
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10:56 Dan (Howdy, Gemini!)
10:56 Modiphius It's more a secret war in the main two
campaigns, trying to keep history as it happened
10:56 Gemini (Hey Dan
)
10:56 Dan Does it assume that the events of HPL's stories
took place as written?
10:56 JP Heya
10:56 Kaiu_Keiichi Greetings,my fellow Sith Lords.
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10:57 Modiphius so in that sense it is hidden, though of course
characters will come face to face with the mythos all over the place, but let's
face it, the victors write the history boks!
10:57 Kaiu_Keiichi can I advertise my new PBP idea in here?
10:57 Dan (Kaiu: Please do so in #rpgnet2 at the moment. Q&A in progress.
)
10:58 Modiphius Shadows of Atlantis the third campaign is a
little more diesel punk towards the end and proposes extrapolations of nazi
technology making it on the to the battlefield, GM's will have plenty of
options to then change history if they wish and allow events to continue with a
different course
10:58 Modiphius hey Gemini, hey jcfiala, hey Kaiu_Kelichi
10:58 GrimGent Ah, I see.
10:59 Dan Do you offer rules for gadgetry, or do you just
stat up the Nazi inventions?
10:59 Modiphius sorry Kaiu_Keiichi
10:59 Gemini hello
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10:59 Modiphius we will refer to HPL's places, people and
organisations when appropriate
11:00 Modiphius We will be introducing some cool ideas for
gadgetry
11:00 Modiphius but in the stand alone episodes we provide stats
for anything that's required to play
11:00 GrimGent Just HPL's or also other authors who built on
his stories later? Derleth comes to mind. Or would that be a copyright issue?
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11:01 Dan (Howdy, GL! Q&A in progress -- see topic.)
11:01 Dan (#rpgnet2
open for general chat.)
11:01 Modiphius Yes there would be a copyright issue, and
actually not all of HPL's works are public domain so we do have to be careful
11:02 Dan Huh. I didn't realize that, re: HPL's works.
11:02 GrimGent It's a topic that crops up repeatedly on gaming
forums.
11:02 Modiphius Yes it depends whether the books were
republished with copyright statements by publishers before a certain date, it
can be quite a minefield if you're not careful
11:02 Dan I'll bet!
11:02 Dan But that only seems right for a WW2 game.
11:03 Kaiu_Keiichi ((whoops, sorry.))
11:03 Modiphius So often it's best to create new material but
allow GM's plenty of room to include HPL's material
11:03 Dan (No worries, Kaiu!)
11:03 Modiphius haha of course!
11:03 GrimGent Hmm. How about material that predates Lovecraft,
like the King in Yellow?
11:03 Dan (brb -- please continue)
11:03 *** Dan is now known as Dan-brb
11:04 Modiphius I believe that might be public domain but will
have to check I know one of our writer's is exploring that
11:04 GrimGent The original Chambers version should be, but
it's somewhat different from the later Mythos takes.
11:04 Modiphius The great things is there is so much scope for
WW2 material with all the different fronts, people's and armies and mythologies
11:04 *** Dan-brb is now known as Dan
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11:05 Dan Do I intuit correctly that your take on the
Mythos is a bit more humanocentric that the standard disinterested cosmic
entitites?
11:06 Dan (On the phone, sorry.)
11:06 *** Dan is now known as Dan-phone
11:07 GrimGent (The collective madness and infectious mythology
angle of the King in Yellow might actually fit in neatly with Nazis.)
11:07 Modiphius We're still sticking with common theme of
terribly inhuman minds with alien reasoning, but many of their minions and the
relatively minor protagonists are more humanocentric
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11:08 Modiphius hi Melum!
11:09 Dan-phone (Sorry -- on the phone)
11:09 Modiphius Yes I think the king in Yellow would work very
well!
11:10 Dan-phone (Melum, Q&A about Achtung!
Cthulhu in progress. #rpgnet2 open for general chat.)
11:11 Dan-phone To keep things rolling, what new WW2-specific
rules have you come up with?
11:12 Melum Morning
11:13 GrimGent Mass combat?
11:13 Melum Non-Euclidean panzers!
11:13 Modiphius For CoC there's vehicle combat, interogation,
parachuting, guards and alertness, army occupations, relevant ww2 skills
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11:13 Modiphius and that's just episode 1!
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11:14 Modiphius Grimgent - combat is so dangerous in Coc we've opened the doors more to
combat with some optional rules
11:14 Dan-phone Can you give some examples?
11:15 Modiphius in the Savage Worlds version we're developing a
supplement where you start in a section, half a squad and end up commanding a
company and can field them on the table as miniatures!
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11:17 Modiphius examples of what Dan? sorry
11:18 *** Dan-phone is now known as Dan
11:18 Dan The optional rules for combat.
11:18 Modiphius In terms of CoC combat we have provided some
options for increasing hit points for players
11:18 Modiphius to make them a little hardier on the battlefield
11:18 Modiphius but at the end of the day as CoC players will
know, combat is brutal, so it's really best avoided if you can
11:19 Modiphius or make sure you've got some damn good fighting
skills!
11:19 Modiphius who dares wins after all!
11:19 Dan Are you including something akin to the Fate
Point rules from the BRP core book?
11:19 Modiphius Not at the moment though they may make it in to
the final setting book which will include all the new rules
11:20 Modiphius We're building each episode to be self
contained, you just need the Call of Cthulhu rules to play it
11:20 Dan nods
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11:21 Dan Oh, I just realized something... Because I'm not
at work, I'm not using my IRC program and can't auto-log. Just a sec while I
copy/paste the conversation so far...
11:21 Modiphius um done...
11:21 Modiphius ok
11:23 Dan Hmm... That didn't work so well. Anyone have
auto-log going?
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11:23 Dan Hey, Bill! Do you have a log of this chat going?
11:24 Dirian i can begin a log from here if you need it that
bad
11:24 Dan Nah, not worth it. I'll get it figured out.
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11:24 Dirian i also have from the beginning of the QA
11:24 +++ ChanServ has given voice to jtbullet
11:24 Dan Okay, let's continue!
11:24 Dan (Howdy, jtbullet! Q&A re: Achtung!
CThulhu in progress! #rpgnet2 open for chat!)
11:25 jtbullet K
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11:25 Dan Do the PCs have access to any pulp
"powers" of any sort?
11:25 Modiphius i can copy paste if need be
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11:26 Modiphius Well in Savage Worlds they do, in CoC it's
straight down the line CoC characters so no difference except for the new
careers
11:27 Dan Any thoughts on changing that, and what will be
the case in the Expeditions incarnation?
11:27 Modiphius we've not added powers if anything it would be
characters some access to magic
11:27 Dan (I'm thinking specifically of proto-supers like
the Shadow, etc.)
11:27 GrimGent No new spells?
11:27 Modiphius we may do as options for people wanting a more
pulp CoC game
11:27 Modiphius there are new spells yes!
11:28 Modiphius some fun new ones being developed right now!
11:28 GrimGent Well, that's the traditional CoC power route.
11:28 Dan True, but I'd love to be able to do Doc Savage
& Friends vs. the Cthulhu Nazis.
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11:30 Modiphius I'm sure they'll be something suitable along
those lines when the final setting book comes out - which we hope will be the
spring, following hot on the heels of the first wave of episodes
11:30 Dan What sort of business relationship do you have
with Chaosium, and does it allow you to tap into resources like the BRP core
rules?
11:31 Modiphius we have a licence from them to produce official
supplements and adventures for Call of Cthulhu
11:31 Modiphius We can create new rules within reason relative
to the setting so I think we can use elements of BRP if wish (though I'd have
to check)
11:32 Dan nods
11:32 GrimGent So in other words, supplements rather than
standalones?
11:32 Dan (brb)
11:32 *** Dan is now known as Dan-brb
11:33 Modiphius yes they are all supplements as it's for Call of
Cthulhu, though we aim for each one to be standalone, you won't need the
setting book to play that specific adventure for example
11:33 GrimGent Ah, right.
11:34 GrimGent No ongoing metaplot which would require
knowledge of previous installments?
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11:36 Modiphius each campaign book is being released as stand
alone adventures, so you can buy any in the series and drop it in to an
existing campaign and not feel like you've missed out. However this is a
growing metaplot that if you have taken part in the whole series will be more
enjoyable but it won't stop people from enjoying just one episode
11:37 Modiphius The mountains of madness campaign will be one
main campaign that should be played start to finish though
11:38 GrimGent It's more linear?
11:38 Modiphius well it's a huge campaign setting, we are going
to do it as a box set or one big book
11:39 Modiphius it's going to be a big sandbox with a key
campaign story but more like a plot point campaign
11:40 GrimGent Does it involve Nazi-trained shoggoths?
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11:41 Modiphius lol no in fact the nazi's are racing there with
a well prepared expedition to unlock the secrets of the ancient world
11:41 Modiphius the allies have to put together a very hasty
unprepared expedition, as they often do!
11:41 Modiphius It's going to delve far deeper and wider than
the original campaign for CoC did
11:42 Modiphius there will be a lot more sites to explore, a
great lead up as the expeditions clash enroute
11:42 GrimGent Ah, one of those "they delved too
deep" set-ups.
11:42 Modiphius well of course, in this case to everyone's
undoing
11:43 *** Dan-brb is now known as Dan
11:43 Dan (Back, sorry.)
11:43 Dan (Howdy, Angus!)
11:43 AngusA (Hello)
11:43 AngusA (Thought I'd stop by and spy on Chris
)
11:43 Modiphius We have a playtest for Expeditions tonight so
i'm going to have it call it a day soon to prepare some more deviousness for
the players
11:43 Dan (Ah, gotcha.
)
11:44 Modiphius hello Angus!
11:44 Dan No problem. We generally set these things for 2
hours anyway.
11:44 Modiphius do you need a copy and paste from my side?
11:44 Dan If you don't mind.
11:44 Dan Are there any new monsters in A!C?
11:46 Dan (AngusA = Angus Abranson, I
presume?
)
11:46 AngusA (yep)
11:47 Modiphius there will be some familiar creatures as well as
some awful new things
11:47 Modiphius Dan i've emailed what I could grab it doesn't go back all the way
11:47 Dan (Cool. Dan Davenport here. We met
at GenCon a few years back.)
11:47 Dan Chris: No problem. I have the beginning saved.
11:48 Modiphius right I better get off to get our session ready,
thanks for all the questions guys
11:48 AngusA (Indeed, and more recently on Facebook. Thought
I;d check this out after you spoke to me about it and I saw Chris was on today)
11:48 jcfiala (His name is Dan Davenport. He reviews
games.)
11:48 GrimGent Bye, Modi.
11:48 Dan Fair enough. Thanks so much for stopping by,
Chris!
11:48 AngusA Good luck with the playtest Chris!
11:48 Modiphius thanks!!!
11:48 Dan Angus: Did I invite you to hold a Q&A as
well? Trying to remember...
11:49 Modiphius see ya!
11:49 *** Modiphius quit (Disintegrated: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)
11:49 AngusA You did, but I've been bad and not replied yet.
Another reason I thought I'd drop by now and see someone else in action.
11:49 AngusA Even if I was a bit late for the show!
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