Couple of Call of Cthulhu questions

[infidel]

Hey, guys, I'd love to get your insight on a couple questions that I can't answer myself.

I'm playing Call of Cthulhu with my friends (I'm a GM) so the characters are all common people, maybe with some military or police background. The first question is how would you handle the situation where the player playing someone like FBI agent or cop actively abuses this power, for example, being okay with breaking and entering someone's private property without much consideration. Should I, for example, somehow try to punish his character for being unethical or maybe it's a normal thing for you? Give me some thoughts, please.

Another thing is that players finally got around to using dynamite I know that you could get dynamite in USA without any problems in 1920s or 1990s, and it looks like now it's much harder (we're not from US but our modules are generally based there). So, should I restrict general dynamite availability to the players during the 20s and 90s and by how much? I'm a little afraid that if I don't restrict it somehow they would just get a box of it each time and try to dynamite their problems away. Would it be okay for the characters to do that? For example, the characters know that house X is full of cultists that are in the middle of a ritual calling some elder god and they actually believe that having some experience with Mythos and previous encounters. Would they generally be fine with running around the house throwing a lit stick in every window?

"So, we just put a box of dynamite in the car, light the fuse and put a rock on the gas pedal. Then we turn the car towards the house. *sigh* But we're not playing Delta Green..."

[clockworkjoe]

1. FBI agents and cops do abuse their authority in real life on a regular basis so that's fine. The main thing is if they get caught. Have some NPC cops show up because some neighbor saw the PCs break into the house. NPC cops will try to arrest the PCs unless the PCs can show them a search warrant (which requires the signature of a judge and the PCs obviously don't have one) - if the PCs refuse to surrender, the situation turns into a firefight or chase scene with the cops. Those PCs are fucked.

2. Dynamite requires a special license to buy. The license is only given to miners, demolition companies and a few other specialists who have a legitimate need for dynamite. It is hard to get in the 1990s and later.

I'd require a SAN check for dynamiting a house - you never know if the cultists have innocent hostages inside or not.

[infidel]

1. FBI agents and cops do abuse their authority in real life on a regular basis so that's fine. The main thing is if they get caught. Have some NPC cops show up because some neighbor saw the PCs break into the house. NPC cops will try to arrest the PCs unless the PCs can show them a search warrant (which requires the signature of a judge and the PCs obviously don't have one) - if the PCs refuse to surrender, the situation turns into a firefight or chase scene with the cops. Those PCs are fucked.

Yeah, I'll have to think up some consequences that would not punish them harshly but would make them think some more about how they handle that stuff.

2. Dynamite requires a special license to buy. The license is only given to miners, demolition companies and a few other specialists who have a legitimate need for dynamite. It is hard to get in the 1990s and later.

I'd require a SAN check for dynamiting a house - you never know if the cultists have innocent hostages inside or not.

SAN check, yeah, that's reasonable. Thanks for the ideas!

[Tim]

Ross seems to know a lot about how to purchase dynamite ....

You could use the method that ASG mentioned at one point and require someone to fail the sanity roll to murder innocent people if they are known to be in the house as well.

As to the ethical behavior I do think I might give the player a bit of a stare down if their proposed background is a by the books law enforcement type and the very first thing they do is break into a house or abuse their authority. If you do not want to go the cops showing up for a in your face show down maybe some of the police cannot pin the break in on them but are pretty sure it was them and so stop cooperating. Maybe they file a complaint but it goes into the PCs file and slows their promotion. Maybe nothing directly in game but it goes people consequences to role play.

[infidel]

Ross seems to know a lot about how to purchase dynamite ....

You could use the method that ASG mentioned at one point and require someone to fail the sanity roll to murder innocent people if they are known to be in the house as well.

Yeah, I was confused because I knew that the house contained only cultists. If there were completely innocent people inside, I'd used that. Though as Ross pointed out, PCs can never be sure themselves, that's what I have to keep in mind from now on.

As to the ethical behavior I do think I might give the player a bit of a stare down if their proposed background is a by the books law enforcement type and the very first thing they do is break into a house or abuse their authority. If you do not want to go the cops showing up for a in your face show down maybe some of the police cannot pin the break in on them but are pretty sure it was them and so stop cooperating. Maybe they file a complaint but it goes into the PCs file and slows their promotion. Maybe nothing directly in game but it goes people consequences to role play.

This is not that easy to think up in the middle of the game so I think the best idea would be to wait until the session ends and think of some proper consequences like that in the time between sessions.

[Tim]

One thing that I have a problem with in most COC games but is sort of cannon is how quickly PCs place the cultists into the inhuman monsters that I can feel no remorse for killing cause .... reasons.

Not that I succeed at this but I try to make my cultists a bit morally ambiguous and try to mix in some collateral damage if I can. Yes of course they want to stop the thing from beyond time and space but it should be hard to kill people. Have the PCs dynamite the house but at the start of the next game maybe they read a police report that show the cult had bound people locked in a basement and maybe make a sanity roll for that.

[infidel]

Well, I don't think there should be all that many cultists in CoC games, it sounds a little cliche. I'm all for weird shit that cannot be killed by physical damage.