Lurker Mythos

[Sheerluck Holmes]

I was looking over the Lurker section and I noticed some of the lurkers are jolly hard to kill because of a high constitution.

This got me thinking about the Cthulhu Mythos skill in CoC, so I came up with this idea:


This occurs during the Treasure Hunting Phase:


Instead of translating a scroll or Ancient/Evil Tome to gain a spell, a player can research such items to gain knowledge about lurkers from it.

Roll d66 and cross reference the result on the table below to determine which lurker the character gains information about.

Knowledge gained enables an Agent to learn more about the enemy, and as such, gets a +1 Damage bonus when fighting any Lurker that has been researched in such a manner.  This represents learning what makes the lurker tick, and what weaknesses it has.

Once the result is known, the Threshold agent must immediately make a Resolve test – failure indicates the agent has gained an insanity (roll on the insanity table as per “Major Injuries” in the rule book.

An Agent can gain more information on the same lurker type with successive dice rolls, adding to the Damage modifier each time.

11 – 14   Ghoul
15 -  22   Fishman
23 – 24   Missing Link
25 - 32   Serpentman
33 – 34   Night-gaunt
35 - 41   Daemoninc Hound
42   Werewolf
43    Formless Thing
44 – 51   Zombie
52 – 53   Mummy
54   Blasphemous Construct
55 - 56   Conglomerate
61   Dark Puppeteer
62 – 63   Scrawny One
64   Winged Nightmare
65   Night Stalker
66   Godling

It would take a long time to gain enough knowledge to change the outcome of the game, plus the agents would most likely have a few phobias to say the least, and the amount of spells would be a  lot lower too, so I figure it sort of balances out in the end.

[Christian]

Brilliant!

[commissarmoody]

I like this idea 

[Uncle Mike]

This is a neat idea...will have to play a few games and see how it goes. The only problem I can see so far is how to include Lurkers created after the rules have been made. Possibly a sub-table first for kind of Lurker: Beast, Daemon, Undead ect...and then onto the specific Lurkers. Could also include 'Up-and-coming' Lurkers...even if the Agents haven't seen them before they could be on the table already...Really cool idea and I like the checks and balances included so far...

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Thanks for the comments guys   

 I was thinking about new lurkers as I came up with the idea, and had a similar thought about sub tables for Humans, Humanoids and Beasts etc.

 The way I worked the table is based on BPs - the smaller the Lurker BP value, the easier it was to gain knowledge on it, with the higher level ones only having a single chance to gain knowledge on it.

 I was in two minds as to if the knowledge can be passed on to other Agents, but then thought - no.  Each Agent has to do his/her own research, that way all knowledge is lost when an Agent dies, thus including another balance.

[PushStudios]

I think you can fix the problem of adding new Lurkers pretty easily by making the table a BP cost table, not a Monster table and letting the Player decide what monster they want the bonus on from Lurkers that BP or under.

11-23 any 1 BP Lurker
24-33 any 5 BP Lurker
34-43 any 10 BP Lurker
44-52 any 15 BP Lurker
53-56 any 20 BP Lurker
61-64 any 25 BP Lurker
65-66 any 30 BP Lurker

[Uncle Mike]

Nice One! That's a wicked idea! 

[Sheerluck Holmes]

I am in two minds about that - being able to choose is a nice idea, but it might make it too easy to get knowledge on one or two types of lurkers only, which could unbalance things... unless the Agent automatically gains an insanity for the privilege for being able to pick specific lurker knowledge.

[PushStudios]

I don't see it as an issue, the only Lurkers your likely to be doubling up on are low BP cost ones, and really, is that such a bad thing?

It all comes back to player choice, they can choose to become much better at, say, slaughtering Cultists (which, by the way I'm thinking tis would work wouldn't give them any bonuses against Cult Leaders or High Priests), or they can choose to become better at a wider range of stuff.

I don't really see anyone ever running around with massive bonuses to a bunch of different Lurkers because Ancient Scrolls and Tomes aren't all that common, and I, for one, am not going to be spending every one I find on bonuses, spells are very useful.

Unless you are the luckiest mofo in the world how likely is it that you'll be running around with a +3 bonus against Godlings? (and if you are that lucky you kinda deserve to have that +3 bonus...)

[Alfrik]

Cake and eat it? Study the content of the writings, scrolls etc. Seems that studying them would not destroy them for learning the spells also? Time sink to study them might take a D6 days? Cross referencing and such with other writings.. at their safe place?

Just some thoughts

[fairoaks024]

All great ideas and i like alfric's idea about time to learn, perhaps having to miss a game or two while studying?

regards

jim

[Uncle Mike]

How about having to gather a 'specimen'... and use a scroll...

[fairoaks024]

Uncle Mike, that's a scenario idea right there surely? 

regards

jim

[Alfrik]

"Gather a speciman from its soft tissue herr professor, so that we can determine its weak points after we consult the scroll"

"Git yer ohwn dang scrapping!"

Gun shots ensue.

Lurker 0, Team Professors -2

[LidlessEye]

I definitely like the idea of having to kill said beastie (possibly multiple times) to study it and learn its weaknesses.

Just to throw out a crazy idea for a mechanic to make it a little more challenging, there could be a minimum points requirement - say 60BP worth of the Lurker type in question.  That way two Godling kills would be adequate, but you'd need to take out 10 Fishmen or 60 Cultists.  It'd certainly make the Lurker player think twice about repeatedly using the same monster.  If the Threshold squad has three Formless Thing kills racked up, you might not want to give them at easy shot at deciphering the foul inner workings of the beast.