Actual Play: Murder of Crows

[Maze]

I've FINALLY got around to listening to the Murder of Crows actual play run by Jon Hook.

It was mostly because I ran out of podcasts to listen to although the only reason I didn't listen to it the first time around was the lack of time and the background noise being too distracting. I am glad I did though because I thought it was an excellent game.

First off, I gotta commend Jon for his awesome impressions of NPCs. You are great.

But, I've also wondered about the whole resolution thing, if the players weren't supposed to go shoot Walker, what were they to do? How were they supposed to get to him? And why were there crows and other stuff all over the place?

[JonHook]

Hey Maze!

SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!


DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT SOME ELEMENTS OF THE CALL OF CTHULHU ADVENTURE "MURDER OF CROWS" TO BE SPOILED!!!!








Thanks man. I absolutely LOOOOVE GMing Call of Cthulhu. The Murder of Crows adventure was designed to be a "low impact" adventure with very little actual Cthulhu mythos in it. It was designed to be more of a creepy investigative adventure. I wanted to punch it up just a bit by adding in the monster at the very end.

Some of the more creepy elements were designed to occur in the Walker mansion, but they never went into the mansion, (which is fine cause were ran slightly longer than our available game time slot even without going in there). All of the animals were being controlled by Prescott Walker and the necklace he was wearing. In reality, the necklace was a cleverly designed Mi-go device.

For whatever reason, Prescott Walker was such a low threat, it was assumed by the adventure's author that the players would subdue him, and then take the necklace. At which point, the player/character with the necklace would become "possessed" by the necklace and become the "villain" of the story just like Prescott was. In order for that to happen, the player/character who takes the necklace is supposed to fail a roll of some sort, but in my game Tom's character succeeded in his roll, so he was able to take the necklace without become possessed. And thus ended our allotted game time, and thus ended our game.

It was super-fun to play/run that game though. I had a ton of fun with the NPCs. I would run this adventure again, but hopefully I would do a better job of amping up the creep factor.

[codered]

   I never knew about such games as CoC until i came across this podcast, I would love to play CoC some times but the gamers I play with  are for the most one dimensional and lame. I did get to listen to Murder of crows and I like how things went. my favorite part of listening to theses podcasts is to think of things I would do differently like not shooting the innocent guy in the face point blank with the shot gun. I'm lucky in the since that I am self employed and can listen to the actual plays all the way through in one day along with the news and many NPR  programs. Jon you did a great job as the GM and I hope to get more of your games on podcast in the future.


P.S Kenders Rock

[Tadanori Oyama]

He shot him the back of the head with a rifle, actually. And wow, what a shot.

I relistened to the play a few times (it's much easier to hear if you change the EQ to Full Treble) and noticed alot I didn't before. Much better game than I thought it was at first.

[Dawnsteel]

I agree, Jon, I liked this Actual Play a really whole lot.  (Hell, I'm not the English teacher here.)  The line that sticks with me is the debutante, when told that money doesn't buy happiness, replies, "OF COURSE it does!"

[clockworkjoe]

my memory is terrible but wasn't the guy shot because a player critically failed an attack roll? I thought the killing wasn't intentional.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Correct. He got a critical fail on his rife shot duing round 2 of the bat swarm and blasted Marshal Debero in the back of the skull. He went crazy shortly after it started raining frogs. But he got better. Then he was convinced of murder in the second degree. The player was upset: he thought he deserved manslaughter at least.

[Boyos]

This too was my first CoC podcast that I listend too, very very good, I also enjoyed the Dig to Victory. I have listend to most of the ones here on RPPR and found a few others outside, but I must say Dig to Victory was my fav.

[JonHook]

Thanks guys. I had a lot of fun running Murder of Crows, but as Boyos pointed out there is another much much better CoC actual play available to listen to, Dig to Victory, that is way cooler. I loved DtV.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Love that one. Long game, lot of stuff happenng, alot of very fun side conversations.

I particularly liked their reference to "the salad days of the scenario" towards the end, wishing they where back in their tench dodging shells where it was, you know, safe.

And the quote "Word War One was the most metal war ever!"

I've listened to that one over a dozen times. Great game.

[Zeernebooch]

DtV is sooo sweet. made me get really interested in WW1. well that and the fact that WW2 has been done to hell by all forms of media. We need some good WW1 shooters damn it!

[clockworkjoe]

I recently learned of an indepth WW1 memoir by a German soldier called Storm of Steel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_of_Steel

Jünger describes his experiences without apparent restraint, and the result is a quite graphic book. However, Jünger attempts to consistently convey a posture of noble dauntlessness in himself and those soldiers that he praises. Even when the narrator experiences true horror, such as while marching into the Battle of the Somme, he seems more concerned with lucid description of, rather than reactions to, it. Although the book does not gloss over the deaths of many, the most intensely emotional passages are reserved for enthusiastic fighting and for placid moments. The book has consequently been criticised for glorifying war, especially when compared to Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. However Jünger was a combat soldier, who saw extensive front-line service. Remarque did not, and All Quiet on the Western Front is a work of fiction, not a memoir (Remarque was actually a sapper for only a few weeks near the front line [[1]]).

Jünger stated in the preface to the 1929 English edition: "Time only strengthens my conviction that it was a good and strenuous life, and that the war, for all its destructiveness, was an incomparable schooling of the heart."

might be worth reading for all you WW1 buffs.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Guys sounds like he's off his fuckin' trolly.

[Zeernebooch]

Indeed he does but it looks like a good read. Will have to pick it up once by stack of books gets depleted.

[clockworkjoe]

new info on dig to victory from the author himself http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2008/08/actual-play/actual-play-call-of-cthulhu-dig-to-victory/comment-page-1/#comment-10866