Trail of Cthulhu

[Phelanar]

So I've been looking at Trail of Cthulhu the last few days and I'm really digging it. I like the rules and the art is really awesome. I know there are a lot of CoC people here, so I kind of wondered how people thought it stacked up or if it's apples and oranges with CoC.

[doctorscraps]

I personally play Trail of Cthulhu. If I understand right, CoC works on a percentile system, and my group is really iffy on that.

[clockworkjoe]

I personally play Trail of Cthulhu. If I understand right, CoC works on a percentile system, and my group is really iffy on that.

that's a weird thing to get hung up on.

[JonHook]

Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu is a percentile dice system. I love it. It feels very natural to me. I have a 60% chance to climb that rocky wall. Or, normally I have a 60% chance to climb that wall, but due to darkness and the heavy rain from the thunderstorm, my chance has been reduced to 30%.

I am very interested to try the Gumshoe system used in Trail of Cthulhu. I too want to get that game.

[Phelanar]

I personally play Trail of Cthulhu. If I understand right, CoC works on a percentile system, and my group is really iffy on that.

that's a weird thing to get hung up on.

Yeah. I may not leap for joy with percentile systems, but at least they have the advantage of being straightforward and easy to understand.

[doctorscraps]

THey think it's more complicated than it is, or they just don't want to do basic math~~But if they don't wanna play I can't run it.

[JonHook]

THey think it's more complicated than it is, or they just don't want to do basic math~~But if they don't wanna play I can't run it.

If you had any interest in running a ToC game via pbp, I would be first to sign-up.

[Phelanar]

THey think it's more complicated than it is, or they just don't want to do basic math~~But if they don't wanna play I can't run it.

If you had any interest in running a ToC game via pbp, I would be first to sign-up.

I'd fight you to be first to sign up. Games like CoC and ToC are much better suited to pbp than more action oriented ones. And I've been seriously craving some Mythos goodness.

[doctorscraps]

I might see about setting that up~~

[Tadanori Oyama]

Basic math is a big hang up for my players too. I've noticed that even the players I know to be smart kind of turn their brains of during play. Not just the choices they make (gamer logic and all) but their actually thinking processes seem to be less sharp on things like addition and subtraction.

I love all gaming systems. I like the feeling of stacking more and more points to ridiculus levels with d20, I like knowing my pure odds in percentile systems, I like the thrill of rolling lower than the target score without any modifers to the number on the dice themselves, and I love forming massive dice pools with d10s and d6s or riding the edge with just one or two dice.

Anyway, back on point, I like the Gumshoe system but it, like so many other games, is something new and different, and that makes my players start reaching for their torches and pitch forks.

[arthwollipot]

I personally play Trail of Cthulhu. If I understand right, CoC works on a percentile system, and my group is really iffy on that.

that's a weird thing to get hung up on.

Yeah. I may not leap for joy with percentile systems, but at least they have the advantage of being straightforward and easy to understand.

Rolemaster is a percentile system... 

[Phelanar]

I mean that the basic percentile mechanic is easy to understand, not necessarily the rules surrounding it. If you have a skill at 60, it's extremely intuitive (for most people) to turn that into thinking "I have a 60% chance at success".

[Phineas_Rage]

I think my original aversion to the Gumshoe system (or, should I say, GUMSHOE system), was that I thought that having only one dice (and a six-sided dice at that!) would be too simple. And, granted, I haven't run it yet, but I actually think that it's great. I believe the simplicity really just kind of facilitates the storytelling.

But, y'know, you'll probably get very similar experiences with both systems in terms of story. Not to mention how easy it is to convert one to the other. This post doesn't really have a point, just that both are probably enjoyable and the systems work well to facilitate storytelling.

[Phineas_Rage]

Someone I played with didn't want to play Call of Cthulhu 'cause you got crazier as you progressed. But, man, isn't that the fun of it all?

[JonHook]

Someone I played with didn't want to play Call of Cthulhu 'cause you got crazier as you progressed. But, man, isn't that the fun of it all?

Abso-frigin'-lutely