Cthulhu with lots of Combat

[Moondog]

Boy, that's a lot of 'DON'T EVER LET THE PC'S BE AWESOME AT ANYTHING'.

And people wonder why I don't like Call of Cthulhu. :p

On one hand, you may be missing the point here. The point of the source material behind Call of Cthulhu is that there are things in this world that are so terrible as to be beyond our understanding, beyond our body of knowledge, and beyond our science. In the original stories, creatures shrug off bullets like raindrops. The point of this is not to make players feel like they can't be awesome, but to correct an unfortunate assumption that most other games embrace - if it's here, I can kill it. Players in Call of Cthulhu should be using their ideas to fight, not their weapons. If you have stooped to trying to take down Dagon with a machine gun and a prayer, you've already lost. However, if you're the distraction while the other players pull off a fiendish scheme to entrap the dark god even more dreamless aeons, you've got the point, and you might 'win' the scenario, as far as anything ceaseless and immortal can 'lose'. It's a horror game for a reason, and forcing people to use scarce resources carefully and come up with intelligent plans is part and parcel of the experience.

On the other hand, that sort of thing isn't for everyone. I think it's nice to sometimes have a plan that doesn't need the combined firepower of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, keeps my players on their toes, but at the same time an action game can be fun. It's certainly possible to run a high-combat game, but the players need to understand that given the mechanical lethality of the system, they shouldn't be getting too attached to their incredible gunslingers.

Sure, and that's an entirely valid way to frame things.

I get that CoC isn't power fantasy (or even 'players play thoroughly competent characters in-universe (that'd be Delta Green)', but still, I dunno. Something about setting every single thing up so that the PCs have the entire deck stacked against them again and again just kind of bothers me.  S'what a lot of the advice here seems to be. Not necessarily 'Don't let your PC's been cool' but more. . .I dunno.

'Don't let your PCs have an even chance, make them go to ridiculous lengths to do things'. Maybe?

Like, it might just be the genre conventions that bug me so much. I don't mind it so much in Shadowrun, where doing a corp run is easily on par with infiltrating the greatest Cthonic cult everrrrr in terms of odds stacked against you and the amount of legwork and planning and crap.

people that play rpgs want to have immature power fantasies and not an engaging high-stakes narrative

news at 11

Now now, no need to be condescending. :p

[clockworkjoe]

Something about setting every single thing up so that the PCs have the entire deck stacked against them again and again just kind of bothers me.

Some people like playing video games on hard or hell on earth difficulty. Some people like a challenge. Others think that players doing poorly thought out actions like brashly attacking a monster or group of cultists on the spur of the moment should have to deal with the consequences.

CoC isn't for everyone but some people find the difficulty a plus.

[Z]

Now now, no need to be condescending. :p

I was just commenting on the state of gamers in general in regard of the current discussion. I meant no offense to you and I apologize if it seemed as though I was being a dick.

[Moondog]

Something about setting every single thing up so that the PCs have the entire deck stacked against them again and again just kind of bothers me.

Some people like playing video games on hard or hell on earth difficulty. Some people like a challenge. Others think that players doing poorly thought out actions like brashly attacking a monster or group of cultists on the spur of the moment should have to deal with the consequences.

CoC isn't for everyone but some people find the difficulty a plus.

Fair enough!

Now now, no need to be condescending. :p

I was just commenting on the state of gamers in general in regard of the current discussion. I meant no offense to you and I apologize if it seemed as though I was being a dick.

S'alright, no offense taken.

[Shallazar]

To answer OP's question, Yes I've had success with lots of combat in CoC.

My players are murder machines, but they do understand that hobo's under the stairs are deadly foes.

In an extended campaign its easier to have grand scale battles or constant cultist skirmishes, whereas in Oneshots you have the investigation phase, followed by the TPK. If its a combat heavy oneshot, just make sure the fights make sense, if you achieve TPK in the first fight, well that's a bummer. But if for some reason the NPC threat retreats, sparing the players, it can be added to the final fight.

While combat heavy CoC might not be what you want, it can still be horrifying, like in Night Mall, it opens with fucking Ninjas. There is more combat later depending on what the PCs do, but winning the fights isn't the goal of Night Mall.

[Palladiumaniac]

people that play rpgs want to have immature power fantasies and not an engaging high-stakes narrative

What's wrong with that once in a while?
Life can suck...why let it bleed into your fantasy life all the time?

I am on hiatus as far as Call of Cthulhu goes...played it almost exclusively for the last 20 years, I'm burnt out.

I am cheesing on some power gaming now, it doesn't have to be stupid, even if...who cares.
I've been running Nightbane- where my players are ripping the heads off vampires, pulverizing juggalos by the dozen, all while delving into a Clive Barker-ishian nightmare world.

It's thusfar been a nice mix of blood soaked humor, serious intrigue and super powered supernatural chop-socky, monster-squad-beatdown action.

It's energized both me and my gaming group...in fact it's brought a long lost, gamer pal out of a long time, family man hibernation.

To each his own I say....game snobbery isn't for me.

Oh and....
BRP can be re-tooled into a more higher powered ruleset. It's not hard, especially if you  have the Big Gold Brick BRP Book. Just allow bullet dodgery and the characters to use the optional Power roll rules (Example: they can spend 6 power points to re-roll any roll and whatnot).

BRP-It's probably the best rules light gamesystem out there...very long lived....