ffutures: (Default)
ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2010-03-10 03:15 pm

FTAGN!!!!!

Charlie Stross and Cubicle Seven have announced the long anticipated Laundry RPG using BRP (Call of Cthulhu) rules.

And there was much SAN Loss rejoicing...

[identity profile] maviscruet.livejournal.com 2010-03-10 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm - while the rule set is an obvious choice a hell of a lot of linked stuff will need to be pulled. I mean san and magic clearly work in a totally different way in the Laundry then they do in CoC.

Otherwise - well nobody would ever get pass basic training.....

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-03-10 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
There are several instances of that in the Laundry stories - the guy who steps into a pentacle at the wrong time, someone (in the forthcoming book) who ends up in the wrong place, interrupts a rouitine ritual and dies horribly, etc.

Remember that in the Laundryverse the Stars will soon (as in within the next few years) be Right; they're tooling up to fight the apocalypse, and the odd training accident is small beans.

[identity profile] maviscruet.livejournal.com 2010-03-10 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
It's dangerous - but controlled. I mean - take his little palm PC and then work out how that would work in CoC. It would be deadly - (1D4/1D106 san lose every use).....

[identity profile] angusabranson.livejournal.com 2010-03-10 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
One of the writers, Jason Durall, was the person who wrote the recently "Basic Roleplaying Rulebook" for Chaosium so he knows the system inside out. He's modified various bits of it for The Laundry (which includes all the core rules you need to play, so you won't need any other book to refer to).

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-03-11 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
And your problem with this is...? I once had three out of five PCs die in a single encounter with a relatively minor mythos entity; one fumble trying to shoot over someone's head to kill the monster behind him, one ripped apart by said monster, and one blown up by his own bomb after he'd gone insane. Another was killed by the police in an unrelated stupidity incident. It was a VERY entertaining session.

[identity profile] maviscruet.livejournal.com 2010-03-11 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I have no problems with murdering PC like there Candy - in fact great fun can be had by all in those circumstances. I'm a firm believer that cuthulhu should be sufficiently deadly that the term "campaign" means one character got through to the next week....

What I was trying to say is that CoC might look like a good rule fit because there both Mythos related - however the mythos of the Laundry is under control and used (if only by the laundry characters). Something that never happens in CoC.... It's a tone thing - and that's a big gap.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-03-12 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry, I thought I'd commented but it's disappeared. I think that the way to make this work would be for the control to be an illusion, gradually shattered as the characters are initiated into the cult rise through the Laundry hierarchy.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-03-13 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
I should add that without too many spoilers, one of the reasons why the Stars will shortly be Right in this series is that humans have attracted the attention of Mythos entities by their use of magic. It's spelled out most explicitly in the forthcoming third book but it's also implicit in the story that was on the Tor site over Christmas.