Stormbringer and (Dis)Associated Mechanics

Once again, Ben over at Questing Beast has a corker of a video on his YouTube channel, this time on associated vs dissociated mechanics in roleplaying games.

(His video is HERE)

Basically, Ben differentiates between abilities that exist INSIDE the gameworld and those that exist OUTSIDE it.

Inside abilities, which Ben notes are called ASSOCIATED abilities due to their gameworld or genre connection, include things like spells. Outside or DISASSOCIATED mechanics are Luck points or bennies as in Savage Worlds, and have no connection whatsoever to the genre, gameworld, or what we would call reality. Ben states his preference for associated mechanics as disassociated mechanics take away from immersion, in his opinion. I have to agree to a point, as I found Savage World's bennies distracting, but players around me simply loved them and the game of chance element they added to the session. Since I bang on about the evocative aspects of old Stormbringer, I am all for improving associative mechanics, without ruling out appropriate or entertaining dissociative mechanics.

Ben also notes that some make the distinction between the roles these mechanics allow players to take, whether as ACTORS, AUTHORS, or DIRECTORS of their character's fate. This shows that the question of associated vs disassociated exists not on a binary of extremes, but instead a spectrum of gradual movement from gameworld-limited or connected autonomy to autonomy that supersedes the reality of the gameworld. This resonates well with Stormbringer, both fiction and game, as non-noble mooks are relegated to actors, while Agents / Champions have more power to become authors of their fate, and may even be offered to become directors in exchange for serving Lords of the Higher Worlds.

All fascinating stuff for discussion. How does Stormbringer fare in this regard? I'll be taking a look at the Elan system and Luck to see how it handles associated AND disassociated mechanics.

The Elan System

Stormbringer's Elan system, which I thankfully reviewed a few weeks back, has several functions.

1) It is a form of XP, but with access limited to Priests and Agents. It is accumulated by serving the patron deity of the character, so very associated in terms of emulating the gameworld.

2) It unlocks certain static powers (ie double HP for Lawful agents and lowered Summoning rolls for Chaotics), which is traded off by several flavorful limits to behaviour. This makes a character more than just an Actor, but upgrades them to Author of their own destiny.

(Just my opinion, but I always preferred the Elan system to D&D's blood and treasure XP. Accumulating Elan just seemed to fit thematically better than D&D's one size fits all XP system, where Fighters who wade into combat and others who avoid it are equally judged on their ability to take down foes. Considering older versions of AD&D had optional classes like the Healer, I always found this unsatisfying. Add to that only Agents & Priests involved in the saga of the Young Kingdoms get XP, whereas more pulp characters living day to day don't count in the cosmic struggle, then I find this very evocative)

3) Elan can increase POW, useful for sorcery, a staple of the game. With greater POW a Sorceror can summon and bind entities with greater ease, and also resist supernatural attacks.

The increase of POW also brings us to another staple of BRP games, the Luck roll, which seems fairly disassociated or what Ben calls 'meta' at first glance. As we shall see, it inadvertently connects to the gameworld in interesting ways.

The Luck Roll

As far as I can tell, the Luck roll is not in original Stormbringer games and first appears in Elric! Notwithstanding, there are arbitrary DEX x 3% or CHA x 4% rolls all over old Stormbringer, so there may be a nascent Luck roll in there somewhere.

Luck roll from Elric!

The Luck roll is given as POW x 5% to have a lucky occurrence, although there is no details as to how often it can be used, or under what other conditions. The description of "being in the right place at the right time" or "escaping the consequences of being wrong" seems ripe for abuse. It has become a staple of BRP games, appearing in the Big Gold Book, and I suspect it first appeared in Call of Cthulhu.

Luck roll from the Big Gold Book

In my experience, there are several ways to use The Luck Roll.

1) Luck as Divination. As a GM, I ask for Luck rolls all the time and use them for NPCs to determine things. Does the downed guardsman have the keys to their cell? Luck roll!

2) Luck as Saving Roll. BRP suffers from the old school tendency for a string of unlucky rolls derailing a game, leading to no fun. In such a case, as GM I sometimes allow a Luck roll for a narrative solution to the problem.  Get shoved off a cliff and hope a bush breaks your fall? Luck roll!

3) Luck as Bennie for Characters. This is the use described in the BGB, and is closest to players' hearts, as it can directly benefit them. Unfortunately, the rules descriptions are rather vague, and although older players mostly use this rule fairly, I find younger players raised on newer D&D try to game as much as they can out of a constant demand for Luck rolls. Luck roll every five minutes!

At a glance, the Luck roll seems quite meta or disassociated. If we remember that Sorcerers and Agents can increase their POW through the accumulation of Elan, we also realize that they are luckier than non-magic characters. Since Elric's foe Thelab Karna often escapes through luck, and as this is a staple of pulp fiction that inspired Moorcock's tales,  the Stormbringer designers inadvertently made Luck rolls a lot more associative.

However, the Luck roll does have its problems, which I turn to next.

Flaws & Fixes for the Luck Roll

As noted, the Luck roll is unpredictable and prone to being abused. To remedy this, I institute the two following rules.

1) Pushing Your Luck - I agree with Ben that an arbitrary limit of once a day on these powers takes away from immersion. Instead, I reduce the modifier for Luck rolls by 1 everytime they are used in a session. For example, the first Luck roll for a character in a session is POW x 5%, but the next x 4%. then 3% and so on to x0%, or "Your luck has run out!". This makes players more wary of pushing their luck and feels every more triumphant when they succeed despite the odds. The modifier reverts to x5% the next session.

2) Degrees of Luck - To further add to the feel and effect of Luck rolls, you could implement Criticals and Fumbles. If we take the rulebook examples of remembering to bring rope, being helped by a stranger, or having a monster attack hit your mount instead of you, we could get something like this.

Critical (1/10 of Luck) - Lucky enough to turn the tide! You not only brought rope but also a hook; the stranger is wealthy and takes a liking to you; the horse instinctively kicks and gets a free attack on the monster.
Success - A lucky chance, though not supernatural. You did bring rope; the stranger gives you directions; the monster bit your horse instead.
Failure - Nothing happens, player must face consequences of actions.
Fumble - In addition to not being lucky, a complication arises. Not only did you forget the rope, a hole in your bag has lost your half your rations; the stranger is a follower of an enemy cult; the monster strikes you and the impact forces you to make a Ride roll to stay in your saddle!

Of course, the GM should keep in mind the concept of falling forward and, where applicable, look for ways to turn these failures into opportunities of some sort. The ripped bag could incite NPC kindness; the monster could lead you to its lair where some treasure has accumulated; besting the enemy cultist could give you a lead on how to progress the scenario. 

3) Luck Rolls or Pools? - Although Ben largely dismisses Story game systems, they have made some innovations that are worth stealing in OSR games. Case in point, the Gumshoe system, which is used for CoC a la Trail of Cthulhu and Stormbringer a la Swords of the Serpentine, allows Players to use pools to buy special effects instead the unpredictability of Luck rolls. The same thing could easily be implemented in Stormbringer and take the whiff factor out of Luck rolls.

I posted about this a long time ago HERE, but may rejigger this at some point.

Conclusion

The Elan system is a great associated mechanic, and one that even inadvertently makes the meta mechanic of Luck rolls more in line with the genre trope of lucky sorcerers. If you're looking to bring disassociated mechanics more in line with your game, once again old Stormbringer shows the way.

Middle Aged Men & Mental Health (PSA)

Hi all readers out there!

This is a real life PSA message, and I'll be talking about my personal experiences, so feel free to skip if you are here just for gaming goodness.

Alright, let's go.

I am 53. And like a lot of guys my age, I have spent decades supporting others and neglecting myself.

I spent those decades tanking through physical ailments and mental stressors. And I paid the price for it.

In 2011 I started a PhD in Japan. My life was pretty mellow before that, but my slack job teaching ESL at a nice uni allowed me the leeway to start my final degree on the side.

Then, in 2013, my son was born.

In 2014 my 5 year contract ended I had to change from my supportive workplace to a hotbed of workplace harassment and a 5 hour daily commute.

On top of which my wife was suffering post partum depression.

The stressors kept piling up. And I kept working like a beast.

I would wake at 6, train to my hellish workplace, teach a few hours, then return. In the crowded trains winding between Kyoto & Osaka, I would sleep or more likely do research and write my thesis on my tablet. I estimate about 80% of it was written in trains. Once a week I would also go to my seminar and fight over my ideas for the thesis in French. Stumbling home in the dark, my wife would basically throw our insomniac son at me. I would bathe him, then carry him around the neighborhood talking and singing to him until he fell asleep 1-3 hours later. Then I would crawl into my room and research for a few hours until I slept or passed out.

Then my supervisor began harassing me. I was incensed, began counter harassing him, went to a lawyer, and fought my way out of that dark workplace with a settlement while at the same time finishing off my thesis, a monumental effort most people tackle while single and not working.

In 2016 I graduated with a PhD in Global society studies, and moved to a supportive workplace an hour closer to home. The wife and I were slowly drifting apart, and I was unimpressed to have finished a PhD but still be stuck working as an ESL instructor.

Then, in 2018 I snagged a prof position on a beautiful island in Kobe Bay. It was a small but supportive university with interesting content classes. I was head of the seminar program, I loved my office with its view of the bay and palm tree lined boardwalk.

For an instant, I was happy. I travelled for research once a year, hitting Germany, Spain, and the US.

Then in 2019 we learned our beautiful, smart and sweet boy was autistic with ADHD. I didn't care, I love him. There was an American style autism center in front of my uni and two international schools he could commute to on a flexible schedule. The island also had ridiculously cheap condos, so I suggested we move there to reduce my commute and raise sonny in a supportive environment.

My wife refused. All her Japanese wife friends and their foreign husbands asked us why not.

There was no answer. I couldn't talk with her without a major eruption. At the same time she had insisted on starting an MEd, so I kept on commuting and sacrificing for family. I watched sonny more and more, especially when his ma went on internships to Vietnam and Australia. At those times when it was just he and I, we were incredibly happy.

Leo started elementary school in 2020, just as Covid exploded on the world. My wife kicked me out in February, and I spent days in a hotel filled with Covid patients when there was yet no vaccine in sight.

That is when I knew we were done. I limped on working, then sonny became violent as he was left behind and neglected at school, then sent for long hours to Japanese play schools everyday.

I wondered, how can I get my beautiful boy back?

In 2021 I began volunteer teaching at my son's school three days a week before heading off to work. Many Japanese teachers were nice people but untrained in adaptive methods, so I modelled the special ed techniques I had learned during my BEd in Canada. I also fought to let my son stay home and away from crappy for-profit play centers that exist to allow parents to work work work.

If you ask my son now, the only good memories he has of school in Japan was when I was there. I helped him through 2021 and 2022, then in November that year he came home and said, "I quit school. I'm not going back."

His mother and I agreed. We would let him recuperate at home and help him study when we could.

She finished her MEd and started teaching at a university in Kyoto. That summer she turned to me and said, "I am not doing anything for him anymore. Cooking, cleaning, YOU have to do it all."

I said, "OK. I'm taking him back to Canada then."

Once again I had to go to lawyers and fight an abusive person with power over me in Japan. But she wasn't physically or mentally able to handle our boy. She finally agreed I would have custody. On the day I was awarded tenure at work, I quit. My colleagues were sad, but understood.

On March 10, 2023, sonny and I got a plane from Tokyo to Vancouver, then slowly made our way back to the east coast visiting friends and relatives across the country. And I have my smiling boy back.

Leo loves Newfoundland. To him, it is a fairyland where he is accepted, left alone, and the cooler weather suits him. I had never intended to live back here, but I am happy to save my son. He entered a good school in town, and was loved by teachers and students alike.

In 2023 we lived for 5 stressful months at my family house, with relatives who couldn't accept my son's disabilities and meltdowns. I got my DELF B2 French certificate, signed up to teach, found us a car, a house to rent, and a fulltime job. No easy tasks in a land that had grown dysfunctional in my absence. I exercised everyday to get back in shape, and cooked healthy Japanese food for sonny and myself. Work was hard as Canadian junior high schools had gone from peaceful spaces of learning to overcrowded and understaffed diploma factories with endless problems. I had initially thought to take it easy and substitute the first year, but caved into family pressure to get a fulltime job.

This was a mistake, and I was exhausted and rundown every day. Yet I pressed on for sonny's sake.

I also reconnected with a friend from my undergrad days. She was still beautiful, a fellow PhD and single parent of a special child. We fell in love, and I seriously thought of spending my life with her in my hometown, a celtic redhead goddess at my side. I loved being at her house or with her family, and put up with her need to socialize in bars downtown every week.

On the first day back to work in January 2024, life fell apart. Again.

At school, students were out of control after the holiday, and I lost my cool and yelled at some to STFU. I was suspended, and the district officials who interviewed me were accusatory and aggressive. In February I had panic attacks, trouble breathing and teary eyes. I reached out for my lover.

And she left me. Scott Galloway says men usually get left when they have mental or financial crises, but always when they have both. And so it went with me.

NB I don't blame her or hate her. She has her own history of trauma, and I was needy when she wanted space. It might have happened eventually even without a crisis due to our opposing attachment styles, but came as another huge shock to me. Especially when her friends mocked and badgered me when I reached out to ask her for another chance.

I spent spring in a depressive state, living only for sonny's happiness. I took counselling through my Employee Assistance Program, which had ballooned in response to the burnout factories schools had become.

Then in April, sonny quit school again. He had been doing so well back at Canadian school, even starting to make friends. I realized he had tried so hard to please me and masked his feelings so long, I accepted his decision. I had begun substitute teaching at good schools nearby, and began enjoying my time at work again. I realized this is what I should have done from the beginning. But it was too late, and I was alone again.

Although the EAP counselling had gotten me over the shock and depression, I still felt weak and vulnerable. I had cut out old friends who called me stupid, a relative who constantly attacked me over how I raised my son, and the ex girlfriend's circle, who drove me off Twitter and gaslit me, saying she had grown tired of me in November when she had still professed her love for me in late January.

I needed a change. That is when I encountered Nick Pollard online.

Nick calls himself 'the people displeaser', and he teaches how to stop people pleasing and start building and communicating clear boundaries that protect and elevate your mental health. After binging his instagram shorts for a month, I started his Boundaries Bootcamp with a cohort of people similarly wounded and isolated by their inability to make boundaries that keep assholes out and let the right people in.

I feel better than I have in years.

For the first time since sonny was born, I am relaxing and enjoying my summer.

I am applying for uni positions, as that is where I enjoy teaching and researching most.

I published a book chapter about my experiences with sonny in Japan. in a volume about barrier free learning

I just shot a scene as a background performer in a hit TV show made here.

Some of my RPG art and writing will be in a UK zine this year.

I have embraced the pleasure of my own company, and those few who have been supportive and loving.

I have dropped the need to people please, and cut off a swathe of 'friends' who pushed my boundaries and called me sensitive for complaining.

I started a Call of Cthulhu game with old friends instead of wasting time, money, and my liver downtown.

Dear friends,

If you are anything like me, please make the change before it is too late.

Get off social media, get counselling if you need it, eat right, and exercise.

Surround yourself with loved ones, exclude any negativity.

Live for you.

- Tedankhamen

CoC Player Innovations

This Call of Cthulhu game I am running now really has my blood pumping!

Players are bringing their A-game, and so far they have made 2 innovations that have blown my mind.

1) SAN AS MORALE

I mentioned this before, but a player had the bright idea to use SAN as morale. One of the 3 investigators had just taken a slash from the leader of 4 knife wielding cult thugs. A cowardly PC ran off, while the 2 remaining pulled their guns and managed to wing their assailant.

How would we determine if the gunfire would scare off the thugs?

One player chimed in that we could use SAN. If they succeeded, they would realize it was crazy to bring knives to a gunfight. If they failed, they would charge into gunfire. They passed, and naturally fled the scene.

I only realized later on reflection how genius this decision is.

In Call of Cthulhu especially, SAN is an important resource. Ironically, cultists and their ilk have less of it, and thus are more likely to disregard danger in their service to their dark gods. Normal NPCs, however, are more likely to make the sane choice of running from danger. This means cultists and their ilk are more likely to keep coming in the face of superior firepower, which the PCs often have.

This is a Grad A+ houserule that I am keeping.

2) OUTSOURCE RESEARCH

One of the possibly tedious procedures of CoC is research, namely rolling for success repeatedly over days. This is why the Gunshoe system used in Trail of Cthulhu does away with rolls for clues in favour of automatic clues based on abilities.

My players went a step further.

One of them spent a morning researching, but wanted to go adventuring the next day. His solution? Rock up to the university and hire grad students.

As a former broke grad student, I can affirm that this is brilliant. Said player's character quickly got sliced up in an altercation, and the week he is in hospital students have done all his homework for him. He is out $5 a day for 3 grad students for 7 days, on total $105, but with a sheaf of clues to go on.

Worth every penny!

CONCLUSION

Call of Cthulhu 1-6E is an old mechanical system. However, my players are showing that with a bit of thought on how to connect the flesh of roleplaying to the mechanical bones of the D100 system they can make useful innovations. And Keepers should be just as willing to snag a player suggested houserule for their arsenal as they are to implement their own.

TGIF!

The Aftermath of The Haunting Session One

First, our wounded soldier is taken to Boston general. The First Aid on site would have netted 1D3 immediate healing, but that failed. Natural healing with rest is 1D3 per week, comes in after 7 days. If First Aid is applied successfully the first week of recuperation, +1D3 is netted (2D3 total). If instead Medicine is successfully applied, +2D3 is gained (3D3 total). So if J's character can be attendant physician and he makes the Medicine roll, C's soldier gets 3D3 healing. If the roll is failed, only 1D3.

Next, the Boston PD takes everyone's statements. Since you are all reputable citizens attacked by blade wielding toughs during the course of a lawful investigation, you are found to be the victims. The police cordon off the scene and determine that the house has not been broken into, and considering its ill repute, they decide not to go inside, but leave it locked. They do find the bloody switchblade in the grass, and the sigil on its handle turns out to be that of a cult involved in a major police action a decade ago, one that shocked the entire city. Of course you have all heard of the Church of Our Lord Granter of Secrets, the child disappearances and subsequent police raid that left several cultists and police dead in a fire at their downtown church, and lead to a massive cover up. The burnt ruins of the old church are still a mouldering eyesore southeast of downtown between the city center and the docks.

Police have fingerprinted the knife and found it to be of one Enki Giminez, a Catalan immigrant and former member of the above church. They have put out an APB and hope to apprehend Giminez and his group by the end of the week.

Mr Falstaff is quite alarmed at this turn of events, but is steadfast in his support of the investigators in getting to the bottom of the affair. He visits Hollinsworth in hospital to thank him for his efforts in protecting the property and assure him that the estate agency will continue the investigation until the matter is cleared up.

Falstaff also promises to try and find other investigators to bolster the group, and urges all members not to go unarmed, but carry a concealable firearm or other means of self defence.

Finally, the grad students will make their reports at the end of the week. Since there is no use in making multiple NPC rolls, this will just be several clues which should clarify what is going on with the house and lead the investigators towards a resolution.

The Haunting Session One Play Report

Diary of Robert Hollinsworth, Captain (ret.), His Majesty's Armed Forces

June 3, 1920

Boston, United States (former colonial England)

Having attended the offices of Mr. Falstaff after his intriguing invitation a ragtag team of investigators was formed to discern the nature of the troubles plaguing Falstaff’s newly acquired property. Said property fell to him after the death of an acquaintance, one Mr. Barns, who informed him of ill doings associated with the property. Apparently there was some sort of domestic affray there that ended with the incarceration of the parents in an asylum and the children becoming wards of the state. Barns requested that the property not be sold but Falstaff being a man of means intent on acquiring more naturally looks to profit on the property. Such is the nature of our investigation. Find what is amiss and report back so it can be properly felt with.


Our cabal of investigators comprises of three individuals who may not cross paths otherwise. There is a surgeon, a capable man, not at all swayed by the notion of things not of the natural world. We also have a somewhat suave socialite of considerable means who seems to be bored at the moment and has tagged along for some reason , maybe to get life experience, maybe to see how the other half lives, who knows. And of corse there is myself, a former soldier of the Great War turned historian, a man looking for the next intellectual pursuit and, more importantly, the next paying job.


Having formed we headed out and promptly went out separate ways. I to the library, the doctor to the police station, and the socialite for a pleasant morning adventure to the old property. Being comfortable with social interaction, a valuable trait in a doctor, the surgeon headed to the police station and spoke with an old acquaintance to learn more about the tragic tale of the family who lived there. Having found the name of the institution he next set out to speak with the medical staff there and possibly meet the family in question.




The socialite headed to the property. Though it was a fine day, the property close to his lodgings, and he in good health, he took a cab, which give his interaction proved to be a good idea. The property is situated in a neighborhood comprised largely on Italian immigrants and is quite overgrown and obviously vacant. It has not been the subject of vandalism. Either there is a civic pride in this area, or people give the property a wide berth. He did notice one curious element at odds with the surroundings. Someone had graffitied a symbol in yellow on the house. He reproduced it and showed it to us. Odd indeed. Noticing foot prints he followed these around the back to find two men who instead of talking chose to pull a knife and threaten him. He being of weaker fortitude, though probably right in action in the moment, fled back to the safety of the waiting cab.


I contented myself with hours of research in the library where I discovered the house was built pre civil war by a prominent merchant who fell ill and died. It changed ownership and the new person seems to have been sued by his neighbours in relation to untoward behaviour. Though this case was dismissed. In the afternoon we set about our chosen tasks. The surgeon and socialite headed to the institution holding the parents of the locations final residents. Under the guise of study the surgeon met with the director and found more about the situation, helped in the ethically tricky areas of professionalism by the application of money, or rather a generous donation to the institution, offered by our wealthy companion. The couple were by all accounts normal prior to the violent incident that landed them here. The man rambles continuously about red eyes and an old man of some considerable persuasion. The woman could not bee seen, though they did secure the reviewing of her file. The two seem to share with uncanny exactness the same delusion and psychosis. This the surgeon assures us in quite unheard of in the medical field.


Having heard of the street tuffs who threatened our companion I felt a stirring of adventure on though all but extinguished by the war. I decided to confront the tuffs to see what avenues that might lead down. But first I attended Harvard university and engaged the services of three grad students to continue the research. Thankfully a constant in this world is students who need money. I sent the geography doctoral student to the city to find any and all reference to the property and development in the area. The history student was sent to the newspaper to find all references to the said property and the anthropology student to the university archives to find all related to occult or ancient practices in the Massachusetts/Boston area.


The next morning after a good night sleep and a full breakfast we headed out to the property. Our socialite friend indicated there appeared to be more foot prints than on the previous day but as to whether they were made by the same foot or different foot he was completely oblivious, as he informed us, such trifling details mean little to him and his world. Not being one to hide from the enemy I chose to proceed directly to the back. The individuals were still here though apparently they had brought back up. Mustering my old Sergeant’s demeanour I greeted the gentlemen. Of what ethnicity they were we could not determine but their darker complexion, accent, and language suggests they were not originally from the United States. The individuals were clearly not in the mood to converse and pulled small knives. I chose not to draw my webley but to continue to engage, which was a mistake as it turns out as I had woefully underestimated the distance between us. The lead street tuff managed to tag me in the face with his blade. I tried to dodge the blow but my mind is far quicker than my body these days and years of war have taken their toll on my physicality it seem. As the blade sunk in I reached for my weapon. Fortunately the surgeon bravery came to my aid without hesitation. Quick of action but poor of aim he let off the first shot. This startled the lead attacker and gave me time to draw my revolver and blow a lump off of him. He at this all four would be toughs turns tail and ran. The doctor again with a spirited alacrity unleashed a few more rounds. He claims he was trying to injure the opponents legs to preserve them for questioning, but luck was not with him. I, being still on my feet after such a wound, for which I credit my previous service, managed two more shots but the wound to the face played the devil with my accuracy and I too followed the doctor’s path of failure. After the dust settled out fair weather friend returned. It seems when the situation touched off he decided it best to avoid a potential wounding, which as it turns out may not have been a bad course of action, though I am thankful the doctor stayed or it may have been a different story. Mistakes were made, lessons learned, and a new scar gained. The knife that struck me bore the same symbol that was painted on the front of the house. I shall provide this symbol to the student researchers to follow up on. We will need to take some to recuperate. It seems this is more involved than we first thought.

What I Learned From The Haunting Session 1

One of the things I love most about GMing a game, besides exercising my storytelling capabilities, is what I learn about the process of creating a shared fiction through roleplaying. Here is what I learned from last night's Call of Cthulhu session.

1) SHARED CREATIVITY IN RULINGS

We had a situation where a PC shot the knife-wielding leader of a group of toughs threatening the investigators. The question was how to determine if the toughs would stay & fight or cut and run.

I put the question to the players - in clunky old CoC, how should we adjudicate this?

One player suggested using SAN as morale when a henchmen sees his leader shot.

GENIUS! I applied it on the spot and the investigators rightfully drove the toughs off in a hail of gunfire, then got their wounded man to the hospital.

Rulings should not be the sole responsibility of the GM, but players should also be invited to bring their creativity to the process.

2) NO NPCS AS PUNCHING BAGS

I see this so much in players coming from D&D. They think social skills are magic and they can intimidate NPCs just by talking (I've posted on this previously HERE). I find it much more engaging and immersive if NPCs are the centers of their own worlds with their own objectives, and that the bigger world rolls on with or without the PCs. This makes even more sense in Cthulhu, where man is insignificant in the face of the cosmos, as opposed to the human centric conception of pre-Renaissance thought which also dominates heroic fantasy.

So when some NPCs with nefarious purposes were found hanging about the haunted house (my addition to the scenario), they of course tried to scare away the PCs and were deaf to any types of intimidation. The toughs were armed with switchblades, and although the PCs had firearms, they kept them hidden and just tried to scare off a group of toughs that outnumbered them.

Things escalated, a PC was stabbed, the investigators drew their guns (finally), winged the assailant and sent the thugs packing.

3) MAKE IT MAKE SENSE

One thing I found myself saying during the session was "Make it make sense," and this is now my GM / Keeper mantra. I think players get too hooked on rolls for social interaction and make up unconvincing stories just to get things out of NPCs.

For example, in our session, a surgeon approached a sanitarium where two survivors of a mysterious incident were kept. The players first discussed trying to fast talk their way in. This could lead to a dead end in the investigation, or even serious professional consequences if their ruse was found out.

"Make it make sense" I advised. I suggested they could offer themselves as wanting to learn more about psychology, or else offer to do a medical procedure.

"Why don't we say the surgeon is doing research on the environmental effects on victims of violent crime, and wants to interview the two patients?"

Brilliant. It made perfect sense in the context, and they rolled with it beautifully. I interjected once or twice when they strayed back into 'con the NPCs' territory, bit in the end they got lots of clues without compromising their professional standing.

And that is how it should be.

4) NO UNCLEARED ROLLS

Finally, I told the players to try not to just start making rolls without consulting the Keeper (me).  I am open to most suggestions, ie a player's idea of using SAN for morale was genius and I ate it up. But in my experience, players sometimes do a roll without clearing it with the GM first. The problems with this are the roll might not fit the situation, so the player wastes their time and feels dumb and the GM is uncomfortable having to shoehorn in something just because a roll was made. So better to clear it first so both sides can be satisfied.

CoC

 Did a first session of Call of Cthulhu’s The haunting last night. It was epic, and players were at the top of their game.

I will make a session report as soon as possible

In the meantime, this is what a player drew from the description of the cult sign I gave.. Stop showing them every little thing, explain, and just like a game of magic telephone, let the gaps between what’s in your mind and what’s theirs color the session.