Call of Cthulhu (BRP) tweaks and houserules?

[Henry Hankovitch]

I'm gearing up to run another Call of Cthulhu campaign, and I'm interested in any preferred houserules or clarifications people have adopted. 

I've been tempted to houserule full-auto fire to be a bit less overpowering; perhaps make it so that auto fire can give you a bonus to hit or damage, but not both.  It does seem a bit silly for a full-auto tommygun to be the ideal sharpshooter's weapon.  And most of the Mythos creatures that don't have explicit damage reduction from firearms tend to get shredded with a single burst from an automatic rifle. 

On the other hand, I suppose in the long run it still doesn't make the PCs much safer, so leaving it in isn't necessarily going to derail the game.  And the incredible illegality of such weapons could also be said to "balance" their combat effectiveness.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

The only major house rule I have done in CoC is to combine skills.  Sneak + Hide become "Stealth," and so on.  I also try to "gumshoe" the game by making sure the core/key clues cannot be missed by a dice roll.

As far as reducing the power of damage... well, remember that CoC is lethal and dynamic, and I would hesitate to reduce the capabilities of their weapons.   Even if they are able to eviscerate a mythos creature, most creatures can do the same to them with one good attack.  And if the characters were shot at with full auto and hit, they probably shouldn't live either.

[clockworkjoe]

I let guns do crazy damage but I tend to make mythos monsters more bullet immune than usual. Full auto tommyguns should be lethal to humans.

[Tim]

I have not done this myself but after listening to the most recent unspeakable oath podcast (which is released only slightly more frequently than the Oath itself is published  ) Ross mentioned using a sort of Gumshoe preparedness skill in Delta Green that intrigues me.

I do sort of use a narrative convention that is somewhat similar but lower powered. I basically tell the players to make statements like, 'I use the rope we have in the car to do x' or 'I grab the hammer and nails out of the shed to do y' or "I pull the body bag out of my forensic kit' and if it makes sense for their character or location I let it slide. I hate that back and forth of "Do I have x, Ok then do I have y, No Ok well do I have z" and if they have a good plan I don't want to get in the way of it. I do draw the line at more esoteric items and major artillery pieces and most people don't abuse it but having an actual preparedness skill or some sort could give them a chance to pull out some more burly items.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

I like to use "Luck" for a preparedness type of check.   And when in doubt, the old attribute x 5 mechanic can work well to give the players another/better chance to succeed

[PirateLawyer]

I'm very liberal with character creation and let players spend skill points as they see fit instead of using the occupation templates as a straightjacket they become loose guidelines; I do have a soft cap of 80% for any individual skill.

As far as guns are concerned I do like the Investigator Weapons (vol. 1) rules so I've adopted them wholesale. The Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity gun rules were also a quick and dirty improvement over the BRP default rules for auto and burst fire with firearms.

[Biest]

When our group is too lazy for math I like to use Eclipse Phase crits and failures. So two of the same number.
Also rolling d20 under a stat instead of multiplying it by 5. Comes down to about the same and if you have the dice laying around it can make stuff easier.

I often use Credit Rating as a bit of a Preparedness Stat, if they have certain things or allies to their disposal. If it makes sense that they can buy them. Otherwise Luck works.

Somewhere on the border between rules tweak and playstyle decision is making failures matter. Aside from gumshoeing it and not rolling for basic clues, I often let rolls determine things about the scenario. So a failure is not always incompetence of the characters but sometimes just bad luck happening to them. Like the engine breaking in the creepy woods, after a drice check failed.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

When our group is too lazy for math I like to use Eclipse Phase crits and failures. So two of the same number.
Also rolling d20 under a stat instead of multiplying it by 5. Comes down to about the same and if you have the dice laying around it can make stuff easier.

I, for one, am quite lazy, and I will gladly steal your D20 substitute.

[Biest]

Another lazy thing I do as a GM is just giving medium important NPCs very few stats when I prepare (or improvise).
For example I plan the players to be in a car chase, where they are chased by an alcohol smuggler whose day job is as a mechanic.
So I just give the guy Smuggling: 60% Mechanic: 50% Drive: 65% Hitpoints: 12 and go from there, should give me something to roll for the stuff he is trained in and if I want to define stats further I can still write them down. But for the beginning I often just give them a percentile for what they will be doing in the scene and what their character should be trained in.

[Teapot]

I use the blackjack skill rolling, and more or less I've added in sources of stability like things.

I turn unarmed damage into temporary damage.

At one point I rewrote the skill section to simplify the overall skills into categories with specializations and skill caps, so you have firearms going up to 40% which works for any normal gun you find. After that each skill goes into offshots (so you take shotgun at 50% for 10 more points.) and at 70% you pick specific guns etc.

I try to pick insanity from the scene rather than the book for long term things.

[clockworkjoe]

I did a GUMSHOE inspired thing for a DG game I ran at Gencon this year. The players had a greenbox with a 'skill' of 60% - every time they checked for something, I made a skill roll for the greenbox to see if it had whatever weapon or item they wanted. If they failed the check, the skill went down a few points but if the item was in stock, it went down more. A pistol could cost 5 points but a auto shotgun would cost like 20 points.