Re: [DL] scenarios (OT)

[Chris Nelson <chris2@pre-press.com>]

Lisa Kenison wrote:

> Perhaps it is because I am biased, but I ran over 30 hours of Cthulhu at
> Gencon and Origins for Chaosium (shameless plug), and granted I used my own
> scenarios, but I have never found Cthulhu difficult to run...

Oh, sure, the system is simple.  But what I meant, perhaps, was that CoC
is difficult to run WELL.  I hear more stories from Call of Cthulhu
players who hate the game because their GM killed them within fifteen
minutes of the game (either because he was a poor GM, or because he
didn't grasp the concept of "horror" as not meaning "splatterpunk").

Some people are really good at Call of Cthulhu because they can run both
a mystery and a horror game, which are the two most difficult genres to
GM (imho).  After all, horror requires you to produce a specific
emotional reaction from your Players, and mystery requires obsessive
partitioning of information.  Tough stuff.

So consider yourself gifted if you can run Call of Cthulhu well. 
Personally, I'm better at the Deadlands style of horror, because I can
always fall back onto the western genre if I screw something up.

> And, I am happy to say that the Chaosium booth sold out of rule books on
> Saturday.  I think part of the reason you say that the only source of sales
> is from adventures is because the rules to Cthulhu haven't changed much thru
> the various editions, but I am the first to admit that I buy nearly
> everything that comes out, including the fiction.

True, but you're one of the few who do so.  God knows I think Chaosium
deserves tons of money.  I'm personally glad to see Sandy Peterson doing
so well in the computer gaming industry because he wrote Call of
Cthulhu.

Maybe this will help clarify my position:

Call of Cthulhu manuals and adventures will not make you a fan of the
genre.  Playing Call of Cthulhu under a good GM, or reading Mythos
related fiction, or just plain being a horror fanatic will make you a
frequent buyer.

Deadlands (and other games) have a better marketable value because they
have flashier artwork, a larger independent genre source (movies,
television shows, etc.), and is easier to run.  Or, rather, harder to
run badly.

> Chaosium strikes me as one of those companies that stays alive because they
> publish good stuff and they have a really loyal fan base.

Right.  And most of their new fans are brought in through either
word-of-mouth, or personal experience through spur of the moment
experimentation.  But hardly any Call of Cthulhu fan became a fan
because he saw a manual in the store, picked it up, and started playing
it.  And if he did, it's less likely that he continued to buy product.

> I hope this doesn't come across as rude or a flame, I was just curious about
> your comment is all, as I run a lot of Cthulhu and have for years..

Didn't take it that way.  By the way, please forgive any incoherency in
this post, I'm about half asleep right now.
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                      Chris Nelson <cnelsonweb@hotmail.com>
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