Old cartoons, bad puns, and why your CoC characters die

[flerly]

For the record, I never actually went outside to get any details of what was going on, so the whole story from my perspective is one of randomness  and frustration. That is, the story of whatever malfunction the Bradmobile was having this morning when he arrived at our house to pick up Mr. T for their Daytona weekend. All I know is that his car

Comments

[gryndyl]

As CoC is my favorite RPG, I thought I'd leap to its defense a bit. As far as initial character motivation, that one's up to the GM to provide. Why WOULD a normal person personally investigate a train delay rather than listening to the conductor's reassurances? This would be a question the GM should have already answered so that they can provide that motivation in game. It certainly helps if the characters have some innate motivations that can be used as a hook.

I've always felt that one of the strengths of CoC is that it allows players to play the role of true heroes. Per your example, D&D characters are usually motivated by fortune and glory which aren't particularly heroic motivations. In CoC, however, you come across situations that must be stopped for the good of humanity and you're the one in the position to do it. There is no pile of gold or parade at the end-more likely an ugly death or a padded cell. The characters are truly risking themselves for the greater good knowing that even if they succeed, no one will ever know. That's heroism.

Good choice on the Robert Ripley character and definitely put a shrunken head in your inventory. As your sanity drops you might consider having conversations with it and potentially receive some advice...

[flerly]

I think you got to heart of my frustration... a GM that didn't do the best job of "motivating" us since we're mostly CoC vets and were willing to eventually bully our characters out of character to do what the GM needed us to do. I just think that initial motivation is something that's easy for a GM to overlook, and just say, "you didn't make a char who'd want to check this out? Well, then guess you'll be making another char."

It's a love/hate thing with Cthulhu for sure. So many dead characters just leave a bad taste eventually.