Its not D&D, bro. What books are "essential" to your game really depend on the specifics of the game you plan on running.

>>14288576
Even D&D doesn't have "essential" books beyond the core three, and even then you don't need to use all the material in them.

He asked for what books were awesome, not for your elitist bullshit.

>>14288576

Okay. I plan on running a time loop campaign in a secluded mansion on a river island; probably in southern Louisiana. The PCs will be the only ones that remember what happened in the previous reset; although a few npcs may claim to remember as well (differently, of course). Who dies when and how will depend on the actions the party takes.

Which books would you suggest for something like that?

What other books did you find enjoyable or which you would recommend?

>>14288576

It made me remind of eldritch-themed D&D campaigns. You had a Sanity score, it could be drained by simply CASTING A SPELL or KNOWING AN ELF (if you were dumb enough to be startled by some pointy-heared skinny freak of nature; Most people don't lose sanity for looking at mundane creatures).

Then here you go at sanity sinks such as fighting an Aboleth (sanity damage for looking at it, for fighting it, and being on WHATEVER end of its skin-melting spray, unless you were Chaotic Evil and not targeted) or Atropal (you are fighting a colossal undead abortion. Questions?).

rolled 24 = 24

>>14288556
i own the following books wich are really awsome.
Core book
Innsmouth
arkham
Dunwich
Miskatonic university
Malleus monstreum (bestiary)
Beyond the mountain of Madness
Tattered of the king

Those books are from the french edition from Sans Detour wich have awsome production quality.
I think that these are like the core of CoC since they all refere to key element of Lovecraft creation.

To be honnest i d say you only need the Core book and then let your imagination do the trick, cause if you use most of the mobs from the bestiary your party has no chance in hell.
The last 2 i listed are campaign wich are always nice

>>14288659

Why thank you, that is just what I was looking for.

I've heard good things about Horror on the Orient Express. Not sure if its still in print though.

90% of the books for Call of Cthulhu are scenarios, or setting books (like HP Lovecraft's Arkham/Kingsport whatever, or Secrets of New York)

General books that I can think of as being fairly useful would be the Malleus Monstorum (effectively Cthulhu's monster manual, with fucking brilliant art and featuring just about anything and everything you could want and lots of stuff you couldn't), both Keeper's Companions (which include a bunch of general inspiration and house rules to make the game better), and the Investigators Companion (though the special rules aren't up to much).

If you were running a modern day game, I'd recommend Delta Green because everything in it is brilliant, but you aren't.

>>14288759

Also, brb, uploading all the stuff I recommended.

>>14288802

>>14288802
>modern campaign

That depends, do the late 60s early 70s count as 'modern?'

>>14288615
>>I plan on running a time loop campaign in a secluded mansion on a river island; probably in southern Louisiana

I did almost exactly that for my first proper CoC game.
I just had the corebook, and I downloaded a few youtube videos of missippi swamp blues songs like this one for background music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8gL6LzlCgM&feature=related

I suggest you also include something to do with the devils crossroads. My players were driving to the mansion willed to one of them by an old college friend, a proficient mathematician, who comitted suicide, and left them a book with instructions to burn it, and the house, with similar instructions. It was the third day, and they were driving in a convoy of two cars, dusty tracks in the middle of swampland and dry fields, and suddenly, a man was standing in the path. The swerved, failed the roll, and crashed the first car.

>>14288897

Not really. Delta Green does have history, but the standard setting is late 90's, early 2000's, though it's slowly being updated.

>>14288934
The second car slammed on the brakes, and they rushed out to help the guys in the first car, everyone was fine but the Axel was bent. the car wasn't going anywhere. A voice spoke up; "Im mighty sorry about the car, I didn't see y'all comin". Turned, and they saw Sitting on the corner of the crossroads a tall man, in an impeccably clean grey suit, playing guitar.

He motioned for them to join him, and they did, uneasily, but they had no other choice, as they couldnt all fit into the one car. The man continued to play the guitar, and asked them about their business. After a few minutes of conversation, one player realised he was calling them all by name, without first having had any introductions. He informed the party of this OOC, and turned to the guy IC and said "wait a minute, you haven't told us your name!"

>>14288976

The man smiled, and looked into the eyes of the player "Please, allow me to introduce myself, Im a man of, wealth, and taste". Everyone more or less caught on to what he was hinting at, bar one player who asked "But what is your name, sir?" He replied calmly "I think you know my name." He lent down and produced an unopened bottle of whiskey, and passed it to the players, inviting them to drink with him. He also took out a small brown case, and removed a harmonica, which he gave to the player on his right. The one who didn't get what was going on piped up, but one of the other players grabbed him IRL at the table and told him to shut up and not make any stupid mistakes. He had no idea what was going on, but everyone was playing it as cool as they could, making no sudden moves, and saying nothing that could be taken the wrong way. The players drank with the man, and he played them songs, with accompanyment from the harmonica, and told them things, but the alcohol made them woozy, and no one could quite focus on what he was saying because of the strange melody of the music.

They awoke in the morning, each lying on a seperate road of the crossroads, with their heads facing inwards, towards the two pristine carse that had been parked side by side in the middle of the cross.

One player, as he awoke and tried to get his bearings, felt a weight in his pocket, he pulled out a silver harmonica, wrapped in fine paper, on which was written in careful penmanship:

"Be seeing you."

>>14288989

>"Please, allow me to introduce myself, Im a man of, wealth, and taste"

Oh Nyarly

if you are running something in Louisiana watch The Last Exorcism

Stephen Alzis is the FUCKING MAN!

PLAY HIM LIKE GMAN for FUN AND PROFIT!

>>14289004
Actually, This Man in Grey or The Travelling Man, as the players are calling him, has shown up a few times through the campaign, and sometimes gives cryptic advice, or a token of appreciation, which the players find a use for. I dont give them DMPPC items, jsut random things, which they figure out insane uses for.

The thing Im going for does in Nylarhotep, but this man is at odds with him, and is subtly helping the players thwart his plans.

My favourite scenario Anthologies:

Mansions of madness
Dead reckonings


Best of the settings:
Dunwich
Arkham

My favourite of the mega campaigns:
Masks of Nyarlathotep
Day of the Beast

CoC is also rules lite enough that you can run scenarios from other systems without really needing to do any work at all - especially if you have maleous monstrorum - and with this in mind The Armitage Files by Pelgrane press is the most incredible supplement I've seen in years; if you think you can't write your own scenarios, buy this.

For everyone that has helped so far, thank you; you're all amazing!

Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.

>>14289028

I'd disagree. Alzis is classy, suave, sophisticated. Certainly not a person to TAlk LiKE thiiiiiis Miiiister FreeeEEMan.

Though G-Man's obviously also an avatar of Nyarlathotep.

>>14289156
To be fair, he said 'play' like Gman. Not 'voice' like Gman.

I have to admit though, what you just said about Gman being an avatar of Nyarlathotep makes far too much sense.

Personally, I play Stephen Alzis with a English accent, despite being described as looking 'arabic' in the book. I do this for two reasons- one, the best villains have English accents. Two, being English myself, whenever I emphasize the accent, my players find it both hypnotic and terrifying.

>>14289141
I wonder has anyone ever run a DG game using the SCP-foundation or XCOM as a base for it? I think it would work well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgjw4hnPvIg

Another one for the background music.

>>14289210
I have. Except I replaces every instance of "SCP" with "IC", for Ice-cave (the forgotten Majestic 12 branch which deals with containing the deep one captives). In my setting, Ice-Cave is both forgotten and independent, and takes capture and containment of paranormal artifacts into it's own hands.

With all the documents the site itself gave me, the campaign was glorious.

>>14289225
>>14289225
I just came.

>>14289225
Oh fuck I bet it was amazing. Were your operatives part of Ice cave, or outsiders who stumbled on a cleanup operation?

>>14289225
I just imagined the FBI gunning down Deep Ones with tommy guns.

>>14289225
You are a god sir.

The only SCP related thing I did was some of the meta-project stuff, I printed out about 75 of them, after applying the "photocopied document" template from teh forums and hid them amongst the refrence material in the campus library, mostly in the legal and political section. There were whispers around campus that we got sent classified files by mistake in a delivery.

speaking for Delta Green i liked the little reference they made to it in the Innsmouth scenarii
At the end of the story post FBI raid on innsmouth the PC meet Hoover who tells em that 3 camp (alpha beta gamma) create by dr Green will be close and a new one will open with the following Greek letter : Delta

>>14288866
>>14288802

Investigator's Companion Volume 1

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V3ZX6V8D

Investigator's Companion Volume 2

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H5BBTHTV

Keeper's Companion Volume 1

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VINB02G4

Keeper's Companion Volume 2

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QML3VNQV

Malleus Monstrorum

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TB7VUGHT

>>14289201

Nothing saying Alzis can't be Arab with a perfect English accent. It's not like he's a normal person anyway.

Personally, I liked the theory that Alzis is a kind of Familiar aspect of Nyarlathotep summoned by Omar Shakti, having lost its previous summoner and form when Stephanie Aldercott got gunned down and the first iteration of the Fate got destroyed.

Mostly because I like Omar Shakti. He's a really nice guy.

>>14288615

Sounds kind of like this one anime called Umineko No Naku Koro Ni (I think. I probably fucked up the name. Whatever.) And, to a lesser extent, its predecessor Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.

Basically, a wealthy family gather at the elderly patriarch's island mansion. The kids are looking forward to a vacation and the parents are more concerned with grandads will. A storm cuts the island off from the mainland.

What happens next is that the entire family, and every member of the serving staff, get bloodily murdered. Then, when the last of them dies, the whole thing resets and plays out again, slightly differently. This is because the murderer is a legendary witch named Beatrice, who gave the family patriach his wealth in exchange for a sacrifice - and she's collecting on his debt.

The patriarch's grandson, Battler, is the protagonist and a firm rationalist. He always tries to argue for a logical, material solution to the murders when they happen. He cannot accept the existence of witches and his denial amuses Beatrice to the point that she makes him aware of the repeating cycle of murders. She allows him to play along, claiming that if he ever conclusively proves the non-existence of witches, he can save his family and prevent the murders.

It's about as retarded as it sounds. A guy arguing for the non-existence of witches and the supernatural TO A WITCH WHO KEEPS CASTING MAGIC RIGHT WHERE HE CAN SEE.

>>14289406
Actually, Battler gets better in episode 3.

He changes his argument to "magic wasn't involved in the murders".

>>14289427

Is that in the visual novels? I've only seen the anime. I've seen up to about episode 20 and he's been restating his case to Beatrice as "there's no such thing as witches" several times.

>>14289406
>>14289427
>>14289471

HAHAH, of fucking WOW

THE KID SOUNDS RETARDED

>>14289406
That argument can easily be solved with the application of a large scale and a duck.

>It's about as retarded as it sounds. A guy arguing for the non-existence of witches and the supernatural TO A WITCH WHO KEEPS CASTING MAGIC RIGHT WHERE HE CAN SEE.
Well not really.

Did you consider what the metaworld, the one they play on rather than Rokkenjima, is? It's not really "real" in the same sense. It is a mass of hypotheses, rather. Just because something exists in the metaworld, it doesn't mean it is "real".

But yeah, the anime is absolute shit.

Dat picture, OP.

>>14288659
>your party has no chance in hell
That's kind of the point. Horror is the ride before the splat ("ohshitohshitohshi"). Being able to fight back (and knowing it) is more of dark fantasy.

PISCES were here. Delta Green are idiotic American cowboys meddling with forces they couldn't possibly understand. We've got spells and psychics and our own hit teams and we're not corrupt, like your MAJESTIC group.

>>14289851
DELTA here. You can all go eat a bag of dicks.

>>14289851
FIANNA here, you asshats ever heard of any Irish Operations? No? thats because we know how to keep a secret operation a FUCKING SECRET.

>>14289851
Says the giant fly in the human suit.

I want someone to convert Torchwood to the CoC setting...

>>14289989
>we know how to keep a secret operation a FUCKING SECRET.
>talking about it on 4chan

>>14290048
By the way, 4chan is a Cult of Transcendence conspiracy. Read Targets of Opportunity, shit bricks.

>>14290026

PISCES agent?

>>14290089

So which See is Moot controlled by? Flesh would seem like the obvious one, but I could equally see 4chan as belonging to Hate or Fear. I mean, there's plenty of degenerates who feel free to spout their odd tastes in anonymity, but the culture also breeds tremendous hatred. And fear of others. My god, it's like the perfect Transcendence mechanism.

>>14290385
No, doesn't work. PISCES is about getting exceptional people and spells, and using them. Torchwood used to be about the goodies, then regional protection, and currently not a whole lot.

>>14290385
Imageboards are explicitely named under one of them, but I think Hate and Fear fit.

Also, Scientology meets Delta Green. How do?

>>14290430

Probably very similarly to Enolsis in The New Age, the mini-campaign at the back of the Delta Green book, similar weird, fringe cults. Alternatively, tie it to some rogue Shan splitting off from the main Temple and setting up in Hollywood instead. Refugees from some cosmic holocaust ring any bells? Wasn't there an American author who stumbled on to the Temple-ship back in the 60's or whatever? Maybe he didn't kill himself like he was planning.

>>14290485
I don't want to know what Xenu is. Considering it's described as a genocidal monster in the public story...

>atestar mother.

Mein Godt. Captcha knows! It knows!

Go ahead and upload all of the ones you listed for the good of any GM's out there without.

Also, posting the unspeakable Oath link since the old issues have gone up on it and it's restarted.
http://theunspeakableoath.com/home/

Bump. If you clicked on the image, roll 1d6 San loss as the eyes seem to follow you.

Bump for the Great Old Ones. Also, 1d100 San loss.

Speaking of San loss, how much do you usually start with, anyway? What is a 'normal' San score?

Also, for posterity, the tale of the greatest CoC character/player of ALL TIME.

The one, the only...

Old. Man. Henderson.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/10964326/

Varies. Needless to say, 1d100 is usually very bad. 1d2 is considered a joke.