In summary, The Internet has a lot of biased or inaccurate info, the police don't need to help, and sometimes it is best to take their phones away for a investigation.
Good video. Another trick to stop the characters from calling the police is to let them have guns they should not have and also keep in mind that most places police wont arrive before its been 20 minutes atleast.
"We call the police" "Ok, two rookie sherrif's deputies show up. No one else but the dispatcher is on duty tonight. Here are their character sheets, please continue."
I mostly play call of cthulhu in a modern setting with my players. I find that most hurdles, I simply ask my player to understand that certain behaviors can break the scenario, but that is rare. Something I like to do while adapting scénarios from classical era cthulhu is that for every npc's of significance that they might encounter, I determine what they might find out about them on fadebook. A cult leader ahould have a facebook page with tons of followers, people who has relations can be hinted at with a good Facebook search. Mostly I'll ask for a library use roll for internet search or facebook browse. Another thing I do with some NPC's is to roll a d20 to scale their online presence, where 1 is none amd 20 is influencer. As for police, I started with putting them in places where they get a sketchy cell reception, than I made them part of a govermement department, like X-files, and have their superior give them the directive not to alert the police, but them instead and they'll handle the coverups. Inspired by the magnus archives podcast from rusty quill, I also determined that digital formats doesn't hold superatural stuff well, it tends to corrupt it. Also effective super secretive cult stuff wouldn't be coordinated and stuff on tracable internet. Hope this helped anyone! ^w^
Thanks for some helpful tips! I really like the comment about digital formats struggling to hold supernatural content without corrupting it. Also I laughed at the thought of cults meeting on Facebook. I mean it's totally believable but still funny.
Good timing! and good tips! I've been thinking about doing some modern stuff soon. I like the idea of the internet being full of red herrings, but still having some nuggets of truth in there. Cell phones I think could be good to use for failed push roll penalties, like they drop it or land on it or whatever, maybe the screen cracks, or it loses some functionality, or just breaks completely depending on the situation and the rolls. For me I've never had an issue with balancing police, they could show up and not believe the investigators or try to blame the events on the investigators, or if there is something major going on when they show up, give the cop a bout of madness and have that add to the chaos. Most of my scenarios players have wound up actively trying to avoid the cops rather than thinking maybe we should call them.
I think modern is great, it's not just familiar, there's whole new things to mess with like memetic hazards, cultist facebook groups that draw in your naieve mother or racist uncle, building a portal to summon an elder god in space or using internet deep sea cables to have an epic final battle on a submarine, new pulp tallents related to the modern day if you're doing pulp (the better version) and even having some perfect existing real world bad guys like Elon Musk who would be satisfying to get to see turn into an octopus monster before you blow them up.
Cultists in positions of power and a dark young of shub-niggurath in the machine helps my modern games run as smooth as Leng silk. It's a shame my investigators always seem to trust the wrong people.
I'm a fan of the idea that certain mythos phenomena interferes with technology, causing phones and other technology to glitch, limiting what the PCs can do, as well as limiting what folks can find online. For example, when someone tries to scan or type in a spell, the fill get immediately corrupt, or may even result in the destruction of the computer.
@@XPLovecat ... Yes! Color Out of Space did a great job with that. Another option is to play in not quite so modern times. I like running scenarios set in the 1970s and 80s. There is still plenty of familiar technology, but it's prior to the information age we have today.
When it comes to searching the web for clues, I believe it would be fair to make the true, non-red herring, clues only accessible through the deep/dark web. Then the keeper could: a) set a high level of computer use skill necessary to find the clue; b) give the clue at a regular level of cuccess, but requiring a higher level to prevent the cult/old one/generic bad guy of finding out the players activity. It can be fun to have a player finding out about Cthulhu only to have their credit card number exposed, a part of his money stolen or some shameful pictures exposed on the internet.
I love your ideas for the consequences for browsing for Cthulhu Mythos on the dark web. You might get some information but you also might get your identity stolen!
Never had any problem with tech. Modern tech is part of setting. Just like in any other settingi (eg. sci-fi). The same goes for Police. You can call them. Yes, but You have to explain the operator what is nature of emergancy, answer some qestions, than wait some time for patrol to arrive... completly unprepared for Mythos related threats.
Communication and transportation. in the modern era, both are too easy. On the other hand, mixing technology with the Mythos is cool. The Nook-Rronomicon
What do you have the hardest time balancing in Modern Era Call of Cthulhu?
In summary, The Internet has a lot of biased or inaccurate info, the police don't need to help, and sometimes it is best to take their phones away for a investigation.
Good video. Another trick to stop the characters from calling the police is to let them have guns they should not have and also keep in mind that most places police wont arrive before its been 20 minutes atleast.
Great point!
"We call the police"
"Ok, two rookie sherrif's deputies show up. No one else but the dispatcher is on duty tonight. Here are their character sheets, please continue."
I mostly play call of cthulhu in a modern setting with my players. I find that most hurdles, I simply ask my player to understand that certain behaviors can break the scenario, but that is rare. Something I like to do while adapting scénarios from classical era cthulhu is that for every npc's of significance that they might encounter, I determine what they might find out about them on fadebook. A cult leader ahould have a facebook page with tons of followers, people who has relations can be hinted at with a good Facebook search. Mostly I'll ask for a library use roll for internet search or facebook browse. Another thing I do with some NPC's is to roll a d20 to scale their online presence, where 1 is none amd 20 is influencer.
As for police, I started with putting them in places where they get a sketchy cell reception, than I made them part of a govermement department, like X-files, and have their superior give them the directive not to alert the police, but them instead and they'll handle the coverups.
Inspired by the magnus archives podcast from rusty quill, I also determined that digital formats doesn't hold superatural stuff well, it tends to corrupt it.
Also effective super secretive cult stuff wouldn't be coordinated and stuff on tracable internet.
Hope this helped anyone! ^w^
Thanks for some helpful tips! I really like the comment about digital formats struggling to hold supernatural content without corrupting it. Also I laughed at the thought of cults meeting on Facebook. I mean it's totally believable but still funny.
@@XPLovecat about facebook cultists, it's quite a usefull tool in order to confirm links between people too
Good timing! and good tips! I've been thinking about doing some modern stuff soon. I like the idea of the internet being full of red herrings, but still having some nuggets of truth in there. Cell phones I think could be good to use for failed push roll penalties, like they drop it or land on it or whatever, maybe the screen cracks, or it loses some functionality, or just breaks completely depending on the situation and the rolls.
For me I've never had an issue with balancing police, they could show up and not believe the investigators or try to blame the events on the investigators, or if there is something major going on when they show up, give the cop a bout of madness and have that add to the chaos. Most of my scenarios players have wound up actively trying to avoid the cops rather than thinking maybe we should call them.
Great tips! I l love the idea of giving a cop a bout of madness, sounds like a good time.
I think modern is great, it's not just familiar, there's whole new things to mess with like memetic hazards, cultist facebook groups that draw in your naieve mother or racist uncle, building a portal to summon an elder god in space or using internet deep sea cables to have an epic final battle on a submarine, new pulp tallents related to the modern day if you're doing pulp (the better version) and even having some perfect existing real world bad guys like Elon Musk who would be satisfying to get to see turn into an octopus monster before you blow them up.
I wish the RL police didn't overuse the "corrupt cops" trope either XD
I always like to drop the "when seconds matter, police are minutes away!" Meme on players.
Yeah, or the shooting black kids trope, or the general existing as a result of slave catching and strike breaking.
Cultists in positions of power and a dark young of shub-niggurath in the machine helps my modern games run as smooth as Leng silk.
It's a shame my investigators always seem to trust the wrong people.
I'm a fan of the idea that certain mythos phenomena interferes with technology, causing phones and other technology to glitch, limiting what the PCs can do, as well as limiting what folks can find online.
For example, when someone tries to scan or type in a spell, the fill get immediately corrupt, or may even result in the destruction of the computer.
Yes, that's a great point. Kind of like the technology going crazy in the 2020 Color out of Space film. This adds to the creepiness as well!
@@XPLovecat ... Yes! Color Out of Space did a great job with that.
Another option is to play in not quite so modern times. I like running scenarios set in the 1970s and 80s. There is still plenty of familiar technology, but it's prior to the information age we have today.
When it comes to searching the web for clues, I believe it would be fair to make the true, non-red herring, clues only accessible through the deep/dark web.
Then the keeper could:
a) set a high level of computer use skill necessary to find the clue;
b) give the clue at a regular level of cuccess, but requiring a higher level to prevent the cult/old one/generic bad guy of finding out the players activity.
It can be fun to have a player finding out about Cthulhu only to have their credit card number exposed, a part of his money stolen or some shameful pictures exposed on the internet.
I love your ideas for the consequences for browsing for Cthulhu Mythos on the dark web. You might get some information but you also might get your identity stolen!
Mythos can jam a regions airwaves.
Good video
I subscribed only because of the channel name
love it, thanks!
Thanks for the video
Never had any problem with tech. Modern tech is part of setting. Just like in any other settingi (eg. sci-fi). The same goes for Police. You can call them. Yes, but You have to explain the operator what is nature of emergancy, answer some qestions, than wait some time for patrol to arrive... completly unprepared for Mythos related threats.
Communication and transportation. in the modern era, both are too easy. On the other hand, mixing technology with the Mythos is cool.
The Nook-Rronomicon
Have the police send out a mental health crisis unit instead of officers
¿No subs? D: No english. Q-Q