Transcript - Episode 2: Call of Cthulhu and You: Rules for TTRPG Actual Play
Audio for Call of Cthulhu and You: Rules for TTRPG Actual Play
Call of Cthulhu and You: A Rules Primer
Wed, Aug 27, 2025
“Push the Roll with Ross Bryant” is produced for the ear and includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
Ross Bryant 00:00:09
Welcome to Push the Roll...
cuppycup 00:00:10
With Ross Bryant.
Ross Bryant 00:00:11
And I do mean welcome, yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Perfect way to start. Yes, I am Ross Bryant. My name is on the title, apparently. Yes, welcome to Push the Roll with Ross Bryant. I am the eponymous Ross Bryant, and I'm here to introduce you to the weird and wonderful world of Call of Cthulhu. Now, some of you who are going to or are listening to this show are old hands at the Eldritch Horror of the Call of Cthulhu tabletop role playing game, but if you are not, that is what this episode is for. This is to sort of like drop you into the world of this roleplaying game and sort of demystify it for you. It is actually a very simple tabletop roleplaying game to pick up, but we're going to go through the rules, kind of how it works, so that as you listen to the show, you'll kind of know what we're doing when we're making the game moves and telling the stories together. And it also might be handy if this is the kind of thing that you'd like to do with your friends in the comfort of your home. So let's get into this. Let's learn how to play Call of Cthulhu. But first, let me introduce to you my wonderful players and guests who are going to be helping me out here with our sort of example. And these are people well steeped in this world who know the rules much better than me, so they're going to be vital, vital components of this introductory episode.
cuppycup 00:01:36
This is actually an intervention Ross to get you to learn the rules.
Ross Bryant 00:01:41
Yes.
Paula Deming 00:01:42
How do we get Ross to understand how an opposed roll works?
Ross Bryant 00:01:47
Yeah, tell him to finally learn the combat rules. Yes, so that was that was Cup roasting me just then, and Paula subtly shading me. But you may remember them from our introductory episode, but I'm also joined today by Bridgett Jeffries.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:02:04
Hello! I am here to argue with you that you can absolutely spend Luck on Luck rolls.
cuppycup 00:02:09
Wow.
Paula Deming 00:02:11
Ooh, I like how your mind works, Bridgett.
Scott Dorward 00:02:13
Controversial.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:02:15
We're going to start off feisty, why not? Let's go for it.
Ross Bryant 00:02:17
Great. We're already in the weeds. So we've got Bridgett, and of course, we've got Scott Dorward.
Scott Dorward 00:02:23
Hello. It is an absolute pleasure to be here, and I promise not to argue as much as Bridgett does.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:02:30
Oh, babe, I'm hurt.
Ross Bryant 00:02:33
Great. Yes, this is the heavy burden that the Keeper wears to know that he will be argued with all session. So now that everyone's introduced, we just want to help you to understand what you're hearing when you listen to Push the Roll. We're not going to be teaching every rule and get super granular about every jot and tittle. We just want to get you kind of up to speed on how the game works. So I thought a cool way to do this might be, we sort of showed how we improvise these scenarios in the previous introductory episode by taking one of the titles and then using that to inspire a made up session. So, if memory serves, the title that we received was The House of Inner Children. The House of Inner Children was our title.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:03:21
Woof.
cuppycup 00:03:22
Yeah, submitted by Aaron, I think.
Ross Bryant 00:03:24
Yes, thank you, Aaron, so the House of Inner Children, as we sort of dreamt it up, is a dark academia story set in the gothic environs of a prestigious boys school somewhere in the center of England called Dunwich College. We have a couple of young students here, young boys at the school. Paula is playing Edward St. Clair.
Paula Deming 00:03:49
Yes, my classic last name usage, there'll be many St. Clairs making their way through Push the Roll, I'm sure.
Ross Bryant 00:03:57
Great. And of course, you've got Cup playing Crispin Halbrook, chess prodigy.
cuppycup 00:04:03
Hi, Bridget, why are you making that face?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:04:05
I'm annoyed already. Damn. That only took a couple of minutes. We haven't even started the game.
Ross Bryant 00:04:11
Great.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:04:11
Jesus.
Ross Bryant 00:04:13
Let's see how much Cup can lean into this character of an annoying know-it-all.
cuppycup 00:04:20
With the British accent!
Scott Dorward 00:04:23
You're just playing me, aren't you?
Ross Bryant 00:04:24
So this is a good opportunity to kind of learn how we bring these shows to life and how pre-generated characters work. So at the beginning of shows, you'll probably hear us kind of dreaming up the types of characters we'd like to play in the various scenarios and referring to pre-gen, or pre-generated character sheets that we've got. All roleplaying games usually use what they call a character sheet, which is just a piece of paper that lists out the attributes of your character, sort of defined numerically. This game is no different, and the skills that any given character has are related to their character archetypes. These are usually their professions in the game Call of Cthulhu. These are often geared towards investigation. So the occupations might be things like journalist or detective or professor, or as far flung as like hobo or art appraiser. We can go to some pretty interesting places. So now that we know a little bit about Edward St. Clair prodigy and scholarship boy and Crispin Halbrook would be musician turned chess prodigy. Let's learn about the other boys that populate this little social circle. I'm sort of seeing these guys as kind of a little Dead Poet's Society here at Dunwich College.
Paula Deming 00:05:49
Yes, totally.
Ross Bryant 00:05:51
Yeah. I think you found each other because in terms of this school, you are iconoclasts. Maybe you're not quite at the same social rank as some of the other students here. So let's learn a little bit about your characters. Why don't we hop into those pre-generated character sheets? We've got many, many character sheets that are just listed by those occupations, those archetypes, and we can select those. And then it's up to the players to kind of re-skin them how they would like, taking the character of a professor, let's say, and getting deep into the details of what kind of professor, and what are they like, and what's their personality like, what might their history be so as you're looking at the characters, is anything coming into focus for you, Scott and Bridgett?
Scott Dorward 00:06:35
Hmm, I'm kind of interested in playing around with the social expectations of the boarding school and perhaps playing someone who is, well, not quite two faced, that's the wrong word, but has a dual identity within the social structure in the school. Maybe on one level, he's a prefect and seen as being a proper goody two shoes. But on the other hand, you know, I mean, that's all a front, and he's really there on a scholarship. He's not as upper middle class as he puts himself across to be. And he's perhaps a bit of a wheeler and a dealer and a wide boy behind the scenes.
Ross Bryant 00:07:21
I like that a lot, a striver of sorts, who probably, who shows a good face to the adults, but the boys know him a little bit differently.
Scott Dorward 00:07:31
Yeah, I've got kind of Deacon Brodie on the mind here.
Ross Bryant 00:07:35
Great. And I also love that Scott is bringing to bear vocabulary words such as prefect, that are going to be very, very useful to us.
Scott Dorward 00:07:45
Ross, just to make things worse, I actually went to boarding school in England not long after this is set, so this is, this is my jam.
cuppycup 00:07:56
He's here to call you on your shit, Ross,
Ross Bryant 00:07:57
Excellent.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:07:58
Right? Like I'm here. I'm here.
Ross Bryant 00:08:00
Okay, sweet. So we have, we have some kind of conflicted Janus faced character that Scott is cooking up. Bridgett, did you have any ideas?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:08:08
Yeah, no, I have a great idea. My first idea was to criticize Cup on not sending me the character sheets ahead of time. So you and I are exploring this at the same time together. Which folder would you like me to choose a sheet out of? And we're gonna discover this together.
cuppycup 00:08:21
Anything that you think you can adapt. So I've used, like Regency in Modern era, so everything's on the table, I think.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:08:26
Okay, beautiful.
cuppycup 00:08:28
Just anyone you think will have, like, a stat mix that is usable for who you want to play. Like, for example, I picked an academic from the 1920s for this just so that I could have the stats.
Paula Deming 00:08:39
Yeah, I grabbed the journalist sheet from the 1920s because I knew there was one. And I'm editor of the school newspaper, ready to discover all the dirty dealings going on below the surface. I know there's something happening here. I just have to find it. So I grabbed the journalist.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:08:59
Oh, I love this. Okay.
Ross Bryant 00:09:00
Yeah, this is very in the spirit of the show where we're like, picking these archetypes, but holding them lightly and using them however we wish.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:09:07
But holding them lightly, yes, oh, I love this. So I'm hearing goody two shoes. I'm hearing journalist dialed in. So what I'm gonna do is probably bring some aggression to the table.
cuppycup 00:09:16
Yes.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:09:16
Yeah, I'll hop into the Old West folder. Cowboy? Cowboy is sold.
Ross Bryant 00:09:23
Maybe you're American, maybe you're the son of like, an oil tycoon who has sent their son.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:09:28
I'm seeing a high Animal Handling, I'm seeing Musician background, really high Fighting/Brawl, some Ride, Spot Hidden, so, yeah, I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be the school's disciplinary problem.
Ross Bryant 00:09:39
Great.
Paula Deming 00:09:39
Yes!
Bridgett Jeffries 00:09:40
You know that one kid that's one infraction from getting kicked out, but for whatever reason, they keep dancing around that infraction? My, maybe my parents have money and have made a substantial donation, so I'm tolerated a hair more than I should be, or there's something going on in the background that keeps my feet planted here, but I am that one that's constantly testing the boundaries on what I can get away with. So I'm probably going to be the loud, colorful one that lets everyone find their surprised faces.
Ross Bryant 00:10:06
And this is always like a fun and interesting question. Do you have names for these two characters? We've got Edward St. Clair, we've got Crispin Halbrook and Bridgett and Scott, what do you think your characters' names are?
Scott Dorward 00:10:17
Yeah, I think I'll go for Thomas Deacon.
Ross Bryant 00:10:21
Love it.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:10:21
Oh, I actually like that.
Ross Bryant 00:10:23
Thomas Deacon is a great name. That is our prefect goody two shoes, our wheeler dealer and yes, Bridgett?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:10:31
Yes, sir, I'm going to stretch the bounds of my imagination and just name the name that's on the sheet, which is Dirk Stalin.
Paula Deming 00:10:38
Ooh, yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:10:39
I'm sorry. Did you say Dirk Stalin?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:10:42
Am I wrong? I'm not. Yeah, that's what I'm reading. Yep, Dirk Stalin.
Ross Bryant 00:10:44
Any relation to Joe? Yeah, he's from Georgia, it says. Wait a minute, not Decatur. Okay, great. So we've got our characters, Thomas, Dirk, Crispin and Edward, oh boy, wonderful. These are our little dark academia darlings. We've already heard our players sort of mention some of these skills related to the various professions. So the way a Call of Cthulhu character sheet works is you've got a whole bunch of numbers related to a whole bunch of different skills. Each one of those skills has a percentage assigned to it. The higher the percentage, the higher your player's skill in it. So for example, Dirk Stalin is using the cowboy character sheet, so has a very high Fighting/Brawl roll, good with the two fists. So that means, what is your Fighting/Brawl percentage?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:11:46
Yeah, Keeper, sitting at a 65.
Ross Bryant 00:11:48
65. Pretty high. So this is the way skills work. You're always trying to roll under that number. If you roll over, it is a failure. If you roll under, it's a success. There are different levels of success, and let's get to those now. Here are the core rules. Here's how rolling the dice works. You got these percentile dice. You roll a d100, just the numbers, one through 100 and you're trying to meet that percentage to succeed in the game of Call Cthulhu. You're kind of moving through a scenario. It's usually pretty investigative. You're trying to uncover a mystery. Probe into realms where humans should not probe.
Paula Deming 00:12:29
Yeah, no, they shouldn't. Don't open the book. Just don't. Keep it closed. Keep it locked, leave it in that back room and walk away. That's how you live.
cuppycup 00:12:38
And listeners will soon discover this is Ross coaching us. He's saying you're supposed to investigate.
Ross Bryant 00:12:44
You're supposed to investigate and learn lore, not just dick around.
Paula Deming 00:12:50
Not with this crew.
Scott Dorward 00:12:51
Have you met us, Ross?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:12:53
Expectations are important to articulate up front, honey. I'm sorry.
Ross Bryant 00:12:57
Yes. Okay, so let's say, for example, let's say there's a fifth friend of yours. This friend's name is Dick Willoughby, and I think you, you all seem interesting, but it's hard for me just come from the outside, to imagine how you all kind of interlock and fit together. It seems as though you're all kind of social outcasts, in a way, except maybe for Thomas Deacon, who's a little bit slicker, um, but maybe, maybe Dick Willoughby is the hinge point that brings your little social circle together. He's a sweet boy, a charming boy, and perhaps he works at the paper with Edward St. Clair and really respects Edward's intelligence and drive. Maybe he plays chess with you Crispin Halbrook and beats you sometimes. You beat him sometimes, and it's always a clash of wits, and you feel that sense of mutual respect for someone who sees you for who you are, not what society expects you to be.
cuppycup 00:14:03
We both hate music!
Ross Bryant 00:14:06
Yes, or you appreciate it in a measured way, yes, but he prefers chess, the beauty of the great game. And maybe Thomas Deacon, yeah, maybe, maybe Dick Willoughby is someone that you can, if you need something, it sounds like you're kind of a school Machiavelli, working your way up various ladders. And perhaps he will, out of the goodness of his own heart, do favors for you, intercede to help out if issues present themselves, put in a good word with an administrator if you need it. And yeah, and Dirk Stalin, it seems to me that, yeah, you're a hard person to be friends with. Lashing out full of anger, big old chip on your shoulder. You've got the money, but none of the social cache. But Dick Willoughby for whatever reason, maybe sees something of himself in you. Maybe he's also a little bit moneyed, but has to kind of tamp down his anger and maybe he's crossed that threshold. Maybe he has sort of found his ways of processing it in these, in these natural and affable ways, and you're able to, from time to time, have an actual conversation with somebody when you're in a room with handsome Dick Willoughby.
Paula Deming 00:15:29
I love Dick Willoughby. I'm like, this guy sounds really great.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:15:33
Super sweet. We all love Dick Willoughby, honey.
cuppycup 00:15:35
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:15:35
I mean, I would offer perhaps, like this being a you're all adolescent boys, perhaps some of you love Dick Willoughby in a way that crosses the threshold of friendship and is maybe you don't even want to put a label on it, but his charm is the kind of thing that kind of inspires you to to doodle poetry in the margins of your notebooks.
Paula Deming 00:15:57
He's just very appealing. I don't know, you know, it's just like he's just, everyone likes to be around him. Everyone does. It's not just me.
cuppycup 00:16:06
The way Dick handles the chess pieces. It's so alluring.
Ross Bryant 00:16:12
Which is why it's such a shame and a shock that he seems to have gone missing over the course of the weekend.
cuppycup 00:16:20
You son of a bitch. The one NPC we like.
Paula Deming 00:16:22
I knew you were gonna do something bad to him.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:16:25
Such classic Cthulhu. Make them care and disappear him.
Ross Bryant 00:16:28
So I'm gonna put you all outside of Dick Willoughby's room in the sort of boarding building where Dick lives. You're not supposed to be here. You don't share this room. Perhaps you want to know where he is, perhaps he's here, perhaps he's ill. Perhaps there's some clue as to where he's gone behind this door, but you're gonna have to get through it first. So this is the sort of situation that a Keeper might put you in where these skills may be brought to bear. Let's see how well you succeed at getting into this room.
cuppycup 00:17:01
Does anyone have Locksmith?
Scott Dorward 00:17:04
Yes, Thomas does. And Thomas also has this tie pin that he was given by his father that he wears the whole time, which it looks a bit odd and abstract. It doesn't look like a classic tie pin but when he pulls it off, it perhaps becomes apparent as he breaks it apart that it's actually a set of lock picks.
cuppycup 00:17:22
Oh.
Scott Dorward 00:17:22
And he just looks around at the rest of you and says, do be good chaps and keep an eye out. And then kneels down in front of the lock.
Paula Deming 00:17:30
Yes, I'll keep watch.
cuppycup 00:17:32
Scott brings up, actually, an interesting point for the way we play this game, versus kind of a traditional, you know, playing through published scenarios, in that we often just give ourselves inventory items that make sense, and sometimes that happens in advance, and sometimes that happens in the moment.
Ross Bryant 00:17:47
Yes. And if somebody's like, oh, I happen to have a flame thrower. Maybe I will say like, but maybe you don't.
Paula Deming 00:17:55
Or you're gonna need an extreme Luck roll to see if you actually do have one.
Scott Dorward 00:18:00
It's a family heirloom!
cuppycup 00:18:01
This is a good time to get into the automatic firearms rules, Ross.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:18:06
Oh God.
Ross Bryant 00:18:08
But what Thomas Deacon has just demonstrated that what I as a Keeper appreciate about this and what Scott has done is that this reveals to me interesting things about Thomas Deacon's character, that Thomas is a sort of social wheeler dealer, but he's also the sort of person who's good at picking locks, which tells me something about the ruthlessness of Thomas Deacon.
Paula Deming 00:18:30
And his father gave him that pin. What's that about, Dad?
Ross Bryant 00:18:36
So let's see that little stylized pin come out of Thomas Deacon's tweed jacket and slip into the lock. And let's get that Locksmith roll to see how well you open the door.
Scott Dorward 00:18:49
Marvelous. I rolled a 12. Oh, so that that's not quite an extreme success, it's a hard success. His Locksmith skill is 50.
Ross Bryant 00:19:03
Great. So let's, let's talk about what that means. We've heard Scott there bring up the concept of extreme and hard successes. Now, the percentage of a skill, in this case, what was your Locksmith skill again?
Scott Dorward 00:19:16
50.
Ross Bryant 00:19:17
50, great. So right down the middle. If Scott gets just below that, that's a success. If you get one half of that. So if you rolled a 25 then that would be a hard success. Now, if you rolled under a fifth of that number, then that's an extreme success. So that might color how well one of these moments goes, or there may be moments where something is so difficult, let's say that this door has like three locks on it. There's a padlock on it. There's a latch, and you can tell that it's bolted from the inside as well. Then I might say to you, in order to get in, you need an extreme success. That is required in order to do what you're going to do. But this is just a lock on a typical dormitory door, your pin slides in, finds the teeth of the lock inside as you probe around in there, and Thomas Deacon is able to push them up. And soon the door swings quietly open and you, and because you succeeded, you are unseen as you move into the room of Dick Willoughby.
Scott Dorward 00:20:28
I'll just smile around at the others and say, "see it was unlocked all the time."
Paula Deming 00:20:33
Convenient.
cuppycup 00:20:35
Tom, have you done this before?
Scott Dorward 00:20:38
Once or twice.
Ross Bryant 00:20:43
You are in a boy's room. Let's say that Dick is a prefect, okay? For that reason, he does not share a room. He has a room by himself. And you walk in and you see a well made bed you could bounce a shilling off of. You see some Pre-Raphaelite prints taped up on the wall, a little writing desk with some papers and books, a bookshelf full of classics. You see Virgil and Shakespeare and Milton and Chaucer all there on his bookshelf, and there's a little rug that he appears to have brought from home. But there's a must in the air. The window is shut, and you really do have the sense that no one's been in here, maybe for a few days.
Paula Deming 00:21:38
This is quite strange. Doesn't look like anything's amiss, but there must be. He wouldn't go without telling us, so I'm going to put on my investigator's cap and look around please.
Ross Bryant 00:21:52
Excellent. So Edward St. Clair, ace reporter.
Paula Deming 00:21:56
That's right, I'll find the dirt.
cuppycup 00:22:01
Oh, you're a bit of a dick yourself, Edward.
Ross Bryant 00:22:07
I do want to know what the Dunwich school paper is called at some point.
Paula Deming 00:22:11
Gosh, all right.
Ross Bryant 00:22:13
But it sounds to me like you're trying to find something in this room that may be a clue as to the whereabouts of Dick Willoughby.
Paula Deming 00:22:19
Yes.
Ross Bryant 00:22:19
And so this means we're going to lean on what is maybe the most used skill in Call of Cthulhu, which is Spot Hidden. Let's see if you can spot something hidden in this room, and the level of success that you get will tell me how much information you get.
Paula Deming 00:22:33
Okay, so I also have a 50 in this skill. So let's go. Oh baby, I rolled a nine under 50. That is an extreme success, because my extreme level is 10.
cuppycup 00:22:49
Where are these in the real games Paula?
Ross Bryant 00:22:53
The keen eyes of Edward St. Clair pierce the darkness of the room and take it all in. At a glance, you instantly see a few things. The bed that I mentioned that was totally made with military precision. There's one thing that is slightly askew, and that is the pillow is just cocked, sort of at an angle, with a little bulge, as if there's something underneath it. You also see on the desk, there are a few papers that your eye is drawn to, not homework or class schedules, but there is a handwritten note that is partly burned. You can see it singed on one side, and you can see that most of it has been burned away, except for the bottom, which is signed in ruby red ink, and it just says, from your friends in the 6. The numeral six.
Paula Deming 00:23:58
From your friends in the 6. And is this something I've ever heard of in any of my other investigative works?
Ross Bryant 00:24:06
It's, I think so, or maybe it's something that everyone has heard of.
Paula Deming 00:24:11
Is it like a social club?
Ross Bryant 00:24:13
You've nailed it. I don't think you even need it, especially you Edward St. Clair, who has their finger on the pulse of the goings on around school and the history of the school. There are a lot of different fraternal organizations here at Dunwich College, honors societies, athletics clubs, but the 6 is a secret society. Oh, it's known only in rumor, and you you weren't even sure that it was something that existed, or whether it was something that was just kind of like in the whisper network of the boys. The idea of the 6 is that there are only six members at any given time. If one person leaves, another is brought in. And this secret society, the rumor of it is that it has existed basically since the school's inception, perhaps before by it was founded, maybe by the aristocrats who moved into the abbey. That this used to be like in the in the 1500s. So that's the sort of cache that the 6 carries to you.
Paula Deming 00:25:14
I pick up this paper and I say, by golly, it's real. Look everyone. I'll show them. And as I shove the paper into Crispin's hands, I say, and I think I saw something under the pillow. And I go, reach my hand under there.
Ross Bryant 00:25:33
Great, you go in and you reach your hand under there, and you pull out. I mentioned it's the 70s, and it's one of those little plastic tubular film canisters.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:25:44
Oh, uh oh.
Paula Deming 00:25:46
Interesting. Photos. We'll have to develop these. I have a Photography skill, so I'm sure I can help with that.
Ross Bryant 00:25:55
Great.
cuppycup 00:25:56
Didn't you convert your closet into a dark room, Edward?
Paula Deming 00:25:59
I did conveniently just before all this happened.
cuppycup 00:26:05
I will ask Ross, since Edward kind of shoved the paper into Crispin's hand, could he take a closer look at that ruby red ink to see if it is ink or blood?
Ross Bryant 00:26:16
Perhaps. What a cool question that this is the sort of paranoid fantasy that a Cthulhu player brings to bear on your story.
Paula Deming 00:26:24
It's blood, we all know.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:26:25
Every time.
cuppycup 00:26:27
In character, just because he's heard of the 6, right? Yeah, he assumes there's some kind of blood pact involved.
Ross Bryant 00:26:33
Yeah, roll Natural World for me.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:26:35
Oh, that feels warm and fuzzy. I like that.
cuppycup 00:26:38
Crispin has 35 and the base is 10, so he actually has some, yeah. This is wonderful.
Ross Bryant 00:26:43
Oh, my goodness, all right, Crispin, take a look at that, and feel free to pop open that canister and see if it is film in there, I will say that it feels a little light to be a spindle of film.
Paula Deming 00:26:56
What do I hear if I shake it
Ross Bryant 00:26:59
Just a little rustle.
Paula Deming 00:27:01
Oh, maybe it's not film. And I'll open it as Crispin is studying the ink.
Paula Deming 00:27:09
Like, why is he smelling the letter?
Paula Deming 00:27:12
Is he? Is he licking that?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:27:13
Why is he licking it?
Paula Deming 00:27:18
And I'll tip out whatever's in the film canister into my hand.
Ross Bryant 00:27:22
It's a tightly rolled up piece of paper. And then, and then weed so much weed. No, it's just paper.
Paula Deming 00:27:29
Yeah, like I pocket the joint and I...
Ross Bryant 00:27:33
Cup, or should I say, Crispin Halbrook. You mentioned, do I have more than the base skill? Just so the listeners at home know the nature of the sheet, every skill has a base number that you have whether or not your character has points in it. So sometimes a skill will have a base of, like 10 or 20. So even if you haven't, like put points into it, necessarily, you've got there is a number under which you can still roll to succeed. But you had 35 Crispin Halbrook, what does the ink tell you?
cuppycup 00:28:07
So the idea there is like an average human would have a 10% chance of being able to do something challenging, involving the natural world. But for some reason, Crispin, maybe he was in, I don't know. What do they call the Scouts in England, Scott?
Scott Dorward 00:28:19
The Scouts.
Paula Deming 00:28:20
I think the Scouts.
Scott Dorward 00:28:22
Wait, where do you think it came from?
Ross Bryant 00:28:24
Lord Baden-Powell, yeah. The Scouts are from England.
cuppycup 00:28:28
This whole show is just to teach me a little history. So Crispin was in the Scouts before he entered the school. So he has a little bit of Natural World. However, he failed with 42 over 35 which makes me wonder, Ross, if we want to get into a little bit of the nuance of failing rolls.
Ross Bryant 00:28:45
That's right. So you failed a roll. Oh, dear. But I will offer that there are ways that you can succeed. Here is one of the most interesting mechanics in Call of Cthulhu, is that you have a Luck score. We all roll for luck. Your sheets have a Luck score on them. Sometimes we'll roll for Luck at the beginning of a session, which just means we roll three dice, sort of tally them up and create a Luck figure.
Paula Deming 00:29:13
I'll do it right now.
Ross Bryant 00:29:14
3d6 times five.
Paula Deming 00:29:16
Oh, yeah. Oh, great. That was really good. I rolled two sixes and a four. So that's 16 times five. I don't know I'm gonna do math real quick. That's my Luck. I'm really excited.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:29:26
Damn, that's a nice Luck. Good rolls.
cuppycup 00:29:28
Yeah.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:29:28
Stunning.
Ross Bryant 00:29:29
St. Clair is very lucky.
Paula Deming 00:29:31
I'm so lucky. It's how I got in here, actually. My family has no money.
Ross Bryant 00:29:35
It all tracks.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:29:37
Luck will get you through.
Ross Bryant 00:29:38
That Luck score kind of shows you how lucky your character is. If you find yourself in a situation like Crispin right now, where you failed your roll, you can spend points of Luck in order to bring your roll number down to the level at which you would get the level of success you'd like. So the more you failed by, the more Luck you would have to spend to get your to get your roll down to a success. And of course, when you spend your Luck, your score goes down. So if you need to roll Luck to have a lucky break later, we mentioned, oh, I happen to have a flame thrower in my fanny pack. Let's roll Luck to find out. If you do, you'd then be rolling a much lower number. So that's one way you can spend Luck to bring your roll down to succeed. And that demonstrates that you, in fact, got a lucky break that allowed you to succeed, where at first you thought you failed. But there's another way. There's another way you can attempt to succeed in a roll you failed. And apropos to the title of our little program here, it's pushing the roll. If you fail, you can always push the roll, which means that you roll again, and you describe how you're doing what you were attempting to do a little bit harder with a little bit more emphasis, maybe trying a different tactic. And if you succeed, congratulations, you succeeded. But if you fail again, if you fail the pushed roll, then something terrible happens to you.
Paula Deming 00:31:03
It's so bad.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:31:04
Yeah.
Paula Deming 00:31:04
And with Ross as your Keeper, it's pretty bad.
cuppycup 00:31:11
Yeah. So I think in a, in a an actual game, I'm seven off, right? So 42 over 35 it would be pretty reasonable for me to spend seven points of Luck out of my 50 Luck to make this a success. But I feel like it's a pretty good time to demonstrate pushing a roll at the same time.
Paula Deming 00:31:27
Go for it.
Ross Bryant 00:31:28
Love that.
cuppycup 00:31:28
And sometimes it's just more fun to push a roll. So yeah, the onus is usually on us as players to describe how we're doing it. Like, how are you going to use Natural World and make it harder on yourself? So I think that Crispin's studying the paper and realizes, like, he's not quite sure what dried blood looks like on paper, so he wants to do a comparison.
Paula Deming 00:31:49
Oh, no.
cuppycup 00:31:50
He's gonna prick his finger and bleed a little bit on the paper so he can get that side by side look to see if this is blood or ink.
Ross Bryant 00:31:59
And this sort of reckless and vaguely occult inflected tactic is exactly what we're looking for as a Keeper. So yes, do your little blood analysis here.
cuppycup 00:32:12
Yeah, I'm gonna borrow Thomas's dirty lock picks.
Paula Deming 00:32:16
If you fail, you get an infection.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:32:18
Yes!
Ross Bryant 00:32:20
Great. Prick your finger, bleed onto this paper and do your comparison. That's your push. So roll again and see if you succeed on your Natural World roll.
Scott Dorward 00:32:31
Honestly, it's irresponsible to stab yourself in the finger like that. Let me do it for you.
cuppycup 00:32:38
Ah, not so deep. Tom! And I failed with an 82.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:32:43
Good for you. I'm proud of you. Good for us. Yep.
cuppycup 00:32:46
I'm glad. This is the show. This is how this show works, right?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:32:49
Yep.
Ross Bryant 00:32:50
You're holding the little paper. It's got that singed edge, and you can just see the crimson ink saying from your friends at the 6, very elegantly calligraphized 6. And your blood hits the paper, and you can instantly see that there is a difference. The hue of the blood is this kind of deep magenta, not quite the same as the very livid red of the ink. You hold it up to your face Crispin to see, and yes, your keen and rational chess player's mind begins to deduce that, yes, this was probably just a red ink. That's what you think before you see the little dollop of your blood quiver, shift and move itself across the paper like like a bead of quicksilver as it kind of dances across the paper, merging with the sinuous edge of the numeral 6 at its bottom, absorbed into it and then resolve once again, infusing itself into what you thought was the ink, until it all now kind of shifts again and becomes even brighter in its red color. You failed, your pushed roll, but I will say that you have learned something, that it is blood and it's not human.
cuppycup 00:34:25
Oh!
Ross Bryant 00:34:26
And it calls your blood to it.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:34:28
Oof.
cuppycup 00:34:29
Holy cow.
Ross Bryant 00:34:30
Roll Sanity for me.
Paula Deming 00:34:32
Yeah.
cuppycup 00:34:34
Oh, just a cascading way to learn all the mechanics, right?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:34:38
Yep.
Paula Deming 00:34:38
I love it.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:34:39
Double oof.
cuppycup 00:34:40
I have a Sanity number on my sheet that's equal to my Power characteristic. So I'm gonna, because I haven't lost any yet, right? So I'm gonna roll that.
Ross Bryant 00:34:50
So when you encounter something strange or horrific or horrifying, then you roll Sanity. This is the most kind of Lovecraftian mechanic of this game to me. You roll your Sanity score, and let's see if you succeed or fail.
cuppycup 00:35:05
Okay, I've rolled a 70 over 60.
Ross Bryant 00:35:09
Great, so you failed your Sanity roll. Okay, let's see here.
Paula Deming 00:35:13
And now remind me, can we spend Luck on our Sanity rolls? No, right?
Ross Bryant 00:35:18
That's right.
cuppycup 00:35:19
Not on Sanity or combat. Wait, no, you can spend Luck on combat. You can't push combat.
Scott Dorward 00:35:24
You can on combat.
Ross Bryant 00:35:25
You cannot push combat rolls. You can spend Luck.
Scott Dorward 00:35:28
The three roles you can't spend Luck on are pushed rolls, San rolls and Luck rolls.
cuppycup 00:35:36
Got it. The subplot here is that I've been running and playing games for six years, and I don't know the basic rules.
Paula Deming 00:35:43
No one knows everything. That's why we have handbooks.
cuppycup 00:35:46
That's right.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:35:46
Listen, honey, yes and GM screens and reference docs, yes. Get the story told. You'll be okay.
cuppycup 00:35:52
Oh, this reminds me of another important feature mid-roll advertising.
Scott Dorward 00:36:00
Oh, seamless, seamless, Cup, seamless.
cuppycup 00:36:05
If I wanted to own the handbooks, Ross, if I wanted to have a Keeper's Handbook, or a Player's Investigator Guide, or maybe a Starter Set of scenarios. I'm not ready to run improvised games. I want to see what the scenarios are like. What might I do?
Ross Bryant 00:36:19
Well, if I was you, Cup, I would go to visit our friends at Chaosium, the wonderful and totally sick freaks who make the game Call of Cthulhu. Yes. And wouldn't you know it, they have offered our show a special discount code that you can use on their website. So if you go to chaosium.com and use the coupon code PUSH15, that's push one five, you can get 15% off the Call of Cthulhu product of your choice, whether it's a Starter Set or a scenario book. So if you'd like to play games using the rules that we're currently so elegantly describing, head on over to chaosium.com and use our coupon code PUSH15 to delve into the tomes of madness.
Paula Deming 00:37:06
And though we here on Push the Roll, are improvising all of our scenarios. One of the great things, and this is genuine, so I feel very motivated to say this, one of the great things about Chaosium Call of Cthulhu products, is almost anything you buy from them is gonna come with a scenario with it. I literally just picked up the Keeper Screen Pack, which is great, and it came with, like, two scenarios in it. I was like, I just wanted a little board with some references on it. But also, I have adventures I can run. It's great. I love them.
Ross Bryant 00:37:37
Yeah, I can say for myself, one of the only reasons that I that I in any way feel kind of empowered to do these sort of improvised scenarios is because I've been guided so ably by people running through the scenarios that come in Chaosium's books. They're really, really cool and creepy, and give you everything that you need to create interesting NPCs and horrifying stories to titillate and terrify your friends.
cuppycup 00:38:06
We should have asked for more money for such a long ad, but I know one of the authors, Paula, of one of the scenarios in the Keeper Screen Pack.
Scott Dorward 00:38:13
Really?
cuppycup 00:38:14
Yeah, I do.
Scott Dorward 00:38:15
Oh, God!
Paula Deming 00:38:16
Are they on this call right now?
cuppycup 00:38:18
Scott Dorward.
Paula Deming 00:38:21
Scott, I'm gonna run yours. I'm so excited.
Scott Dorward 00:38:25
Oh, fantastic. Oh, can I apologize to your players in advance, because this one does tend to freak people out.
Paula Deming 00:38:33
Definitely running it, yes.
cuppycup 00:38:35
Amazing. Oh, and if, if you go to chaosium.com, and put in PUSH15, and it doesn't work, it just means you were too slow to get to this episode. I'm so sorry.
Ross Bryant 00:38:45
Yep, sorry. You snooze, you lose. But, head on over with the quickness, PUSH15 and yes, if you ever do a scenario as created by Scott, just know that something terrible will be crawling out of your mouth.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:38:59
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
cuppycup 00:39:00
Oh, and also pick up No Time to Scream, which has a lovely scenario by Bridgett Jeffries.
Paula Deming 00:39:07
Yeah, that's right!
Ross Bryant 00:39:11
Awesome. So, but um, I'm sorry, we were in the middle of a Sanity roll, weren't we? It's one that you failed.
cuppycup 00:39:17
I was trying to deflect.
Paula Deming 00:39:19
Yeah, you were stalling.
Ross Bryant 00:39:23
You're losing three points of Sanity, Crispin Halbrook.
cuppycup 00:39:25
Oh,
Bridgett Jeffries 00:39:26
Damn!
Ross Bryant 00:39:26
I'm sorry. I'm sorry to tell you, three points of Sanity loss are coming at you.
cuppycup 00:39:32
Okay? So that takes me down to 57 out of 60. Are there any numbers I need to look out for?
Ross Bryant 00:39:38
Yes, there indeed are. Thank you for teeing that up for me. If you lose three points of Sanity, 1, 2, 3, 4, points of Sanity at a at a pop like Crispin Halbrook just did, you know that's bad for you. And of course, you have a involuntary reaction of some kind when that happens. Perhaps you scream, perhaps your consciousness blanks out for a second, and you maybe faint or or recoil in horror from what you've seen. We'll describe that in the fiction in a moment. But if you lose five or more Sanity at a pop, then something begins to occur that, to me, is the most fun part of Call of Cthulhu. If you lose five points of Sanity, you then must roll your Intelligence. Your Intelligence is one of those big attributes at the top of the sheet, your Intelligence, your Education, your Power, etc. But this is, this is very Lovecraftian. You roll Intelligence, and if you succeed, then you understand too much about what you have just experienced, and you have what the game refers to as a Bout of Madness. You take on the mental quality of a phobia, a mania, an obsession. We get to color this ourselves in the fiction of our game. Depending on the nature of your character and the situation that you've encountered.
Paula Deming 00:41:06
It's like the one roll you want to fail.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:41:09
You want to fail, yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:41:10
Exactly, yes.
Paula Deming 00:41:11
You want to compartmentalize that shit away.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:41:13
Yep!
Ross Bryant 00:41:14
But there are other numbers that you need to pay attention to as well. Because you mentioned your starting Sanity score.
cuppycup 00:41:21
Was 60. Yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:41:22
60, right. So over the course of a single day, in game terms, if you lose a fifth of your Sanity over the course of that time, you have more long term Sanity loss. You are indefinitely insane. And this is not just a Bout of Madness that may go away after a few after a scene or two, this is sticking with you unless you get professional help. So always keep an eye on those numbers, because if they dwindle below a certain point, then your mind departs. These sessions tend to have like this acceleration feel as as the Sanity starts to peel away and the madness begins to take take hold.
cuppycup 00:42:04
I just want to make a note, our goal is never to make light of real world mental illness, and often we are embodying this in a very in-story way. We will have content warnings as well on every episode. So do take a look at those if you're wondering, like, is this show for me, is this something that's, you know, going to be triggering? We will include thoughtful content warnings.
Ross Bryant 00:42:26
Indeed, but yes, we even if it's not on mic, we try to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual support. And if anyone ever within one of the games, even if it doesn't appear on mic, is like, not for me, we will happily double back and reframe a situation to accommodate people's sensitivities. Because part of the fun of this game is that you get to delve into these very dark and disturbing places. But we never want to do that at the expense of someone's actual comfort.
Paula Deming 00:42:58
You want to explore it in a safe way, like you're watching a horror film, you know, you watch, you get to feel that feeling in a way that's not actually a threat to you. And so we want to create that environment, right?
Ross Bryant 00:43:10
Exactly. So we've been through quite a few of the main mechanics here, and we've even seen that you took some Sanity loss there when you beheld your blood absorbed into the ichor that was written on this burned piece of paper, and perhaps that's distracting you. As Edward St. Clair unrolls the little map that came out of the film canister.
Paula Deming 00:43:38
Oh, it looks like a map.
cuppycup 00:43:41
I will just add my involuntary reaction, since I think we were approaching this with a bit of stealth, he is going to scream. Ahhh!
Scott Dorward 00:43:49
Crispin!
Bridgett Jeffries 00:43:50
Crispin, keep that down.
Ross Bryant 00:43:52
You hear out in the hallway a door open up like, creak.
Paula Deming 00:43:57
Uh oh. We might need to make ourselves scarce boys, but first a map. We should just go wherever this tells us to go right now.
Ross Bryant 00:44:07
It is a handwritten map of a portion of the grounds of Dunwich College. You can see handwritten labels of buildings that you know, certain dormitories and chapels and class buildings.
Paula Deming 00:44:23
Yes, we must follow this, because not only might it help us find what happened to Dick, I might be able to write an expose on the 6 in next week's issue of the Dunwich Detective.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:44:39
The Dunwich Detective!
Ross Bryant 00:44:43
Rap, rap, rap, a knock on the door. Willoughby, is everything all right in there?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:44:48
I'm gonna swing the door open and then step on the outside of and close it behind me. I'm gonna dead stare at whatever is in front of me, because it doesn't matter. It's gonna get the same intensity.
Ross Bryant 00:44:57
You're facing a very tall adult with an angular hawk-like nose, a big domed, bald forehead and a fringe of white hair around the temples. It's like, hold on, you're not Willoughby!
Bridgett Jeffries 00:45:11
Yeah, do you know where Willoughby is? I'm looking for him.
Ross Bryant 00:45:14
Boys shouldn't be in one another's rooms after hours, Stalin.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:45:19
I have an invitation here. Do you have an invitation here, Mr...
Ross Bryant 00:45:23
Yes, this is Mr. Chessworth, and you know that, of course, he's like, kind of, one of the wardens of this building. He's clearly been drawn here by the sound. My presence is allowed everywhere in this floor, Stalin. Something that I cannot say the same of you.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:45:42
When's the last time that you saw Dick Willoughby? I'm looking for him.
Ross Bryant 00:45:48
This is no interrogation, Stalin. Back to your room! I think you've forgotten who is housemaster here.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:45:58
I'm just gonna hard pause and stare at him. And can I try and Intimidate, just to see if I can stand up to this adult of the day?
Ross Bryant 00:46:08
Yeah, go for it. Roll me an Intimidate to see if, if you can, uh, get Chessworth to back down.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:46:16
So my right foot comes forward as my chin lifts, I'm gonna make direct eye contact with this like, I'm looking for Dick. And then my left foot closes the distance, and I am nose to nose with this, I'm a big boy. I'm looking for Dick Willoughby. Tell me where he is! And I failed. I hit an 84.
cuppycup 00:46:37
Perfect.
Ross Bryant 00:46:42
Great. He does not move an inch. He stares right back into your eyes. This is the sort of behavior that might win you enemies out on the pitch, Stalin, but it cuts no ice with me. Take a good look around these environs. Stalin, you won't be looking at them much longer. When I bring this little interaction to the headmaster. I will insist upon your expulsion. No one speaks to me this way.
Paula Deming 00:47:13
Hate him.
Ross Bryant 00:47:15
He wants to know what the hell's going on. He moves past you and opens the door to the room.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:47:21
Oh, no, that's the opposite thing I needed.
Ross Bryant 00:47:23
Yeah, I'm sorry, but you failed. He opens the door. What the devil is going on in here?
Scott Dorward 00:47:29
Oh, I'll just smile winningly at him and say, ah, you made it!
Ross Bryant 00:47:36
Deacon. I would expect Stalin to be about some wretched business like this, but not a lad with as shining a reputation as you, Tom Deacon.
Scott Dorward 00:47:44
I sent Stalin out to find you. We found evidence that someone's broken into this room and clearly this is a task for housemaster.
Ross Bryant 00:47:56
Sounds like you're maybe trying to Charm him.
Scott Dorward 00:47:59
Yes, Charm or Fast Talk.
Ross Bryant 00:48:01
Yeah. Let's bring to bear that mechanic that we mentioned earlier. I think that because he's at such high dudgeon, because of his interaction with Stalin, who just tried to big dog him in the hallway. You're going to need a hard Charm or Fast Talk success in order to get him to cool off.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:48:20
Nice adjudication. I like that.
Scott Dorward 00:48:22
Well, I have 40% in Fast Talk, so I need 20% or lower.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:48:28
Come on, baby, you got this.
Scott Dorward 00:48:30
And I rolled a 58 now that would be a lot of Luck. It's very, very unwise to push a roll with that low a chance of success. But this isn't a show about wisdom.
Paula Deming 00:48:45
No, it's not.
Ross Bryant 00:48:46
No.
cuppycup 00:48:47
This is a show called Push the Roll.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:48:49
Push the roll.
Scott Dorward 00:48:51
Yeah, and I'll just look at him and look confused for a moment and say, well, but if you're, if you're not here to investigate the breaking into Dick's room, what are you here for? Are you... you wouldn't be here for, and I'll look shocked for a moment, some nefarious reason would you?
Ross Bryant 00:49:13
Wow, threats, threats. Let's see how that pushed roll goes.
Scott Dorward 00:49:18
Badly I'm sure.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:49:19
Damn, you were so close.
Scott Dorward 00:49:22
That would have been a success if it weren't a hard roll. But.
Paula Deming 00:49:25
Ohhhhh!
Ross Bryant 00:49:28
Great. He just kind of calmly looks at you. If I didn't know your reputation, Deacon, I would swear you were trying to threaten me right now. Threaten me when it is clear that you lot are the ones who've broken into Willoughby's room! As to where he is, I'm beginning to wonder that myself. But it seems to me that if there's any funny business that's got Willoughby on the loose, that you lot are responsible. Halbrook, Stalin, St. Clair, Deacon, consider yourselves all written up.
Paula Deming 00:50:04
Well, consider yourself perhaps the target of the next op-ed in the Dunwich Detective, Mr. Chessman,
Ross Bryant 00:50:19
Chessworth!
Paula Deming 00:50:21
I knew that, and I said it right. I'm certain!
Ross Bryant 00:50:24
Right, right. He looks, he just kind of looks at you and it's like, oh yes, I wouldn't want to be the subject of your poison pen, St. Clair. Let's see how long your seat in the editor's chair lasts once I've spoken with the headmaster. Back to your rooms, all of you! And after that, he scoots away with a big head of steam, and it looks like, man, things may not be good for your prospects here at Dunwich.
Paula Deming 00:50:52
It sounds like if we don't continue our investigations tonight, we might not have the chance, because I think we're going to be in big trouble tomorrow after he speaks to the headmaster.
Ross Bryant 00:51:01
Let's pull the curtain on this scene right now and fast forward you two hours ahead.
Paula Deming 00:51:05
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:51:05
Let's say that you're on the trail of Dick Willoughby after looking at the map, you of course see that highlighted in it is St. George's Chapel, a ruin just outside of campus long since unused, dating back to, God, the 1300s but boarded up, a ruin where people will go to have like little bonfires and sneak cigarettes out on the verge of the campus, and you have a sense that maybe this is where the 6 hold their meetings. You went down into this little chapel, you found ruined passageways, and you have come upon the 6 themselves. They indeed have Willoughby, who is rather upset that you have come upon them, because, of course, their ritual is not yet complete.
Paula Deming 00:52:00
He's mad at us, but we were trying to help.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:52:03
We thought you were in trouble.
Ross Bryant 00:52:05
I'm sorry to say that he is and yet he isn't. He is laid out on top of a sepulcher with five other young boys around him, all in crimson robes. There are candles all around. There's some awesome expository dialog about how, yes, the 6 has been here for centuries that the rituals were brought back by Knights Hospitaller from the Holy Land, who were exposed to strange cultic forces out there.
Paula Deming 00:52:38
Our fathers and their fathers and their fathers were all part of this group.
Ross Bryant 00:52:43
Yes, the members of the 6 have basically ruled Albion from the shadows for centuries, and so now they don't want you to interrupt this ritual that's been going on for a couple of days.
cuppycup 00:52:55
Wow.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:52:56
Damn.
Ross Bryant 00:52:56
And I'm sorry to tell you that one of them cuts his palm in a strange sigil, holds it up to you in the candlelight, the blood trickles out, and then, like a dollop of quicksilver falls on the floor, scuttles towards you, and then begins to blossom and bloom and rise up and grow. And there is now a humanoid form that is ruby red and gelatinous, sort of moving towards you. You interfere with us, because you are fools, especially you, Deacon. I thought, I thought that you could have been one of us one day, but now it seems that you're just a meddler.
Scott Dorward 00:53:39
Oh.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:53:40
Meddler?
Ross Bryant 00:53:41
Because you don't know that we're on the side of the angels. You're looking into the eye of an angel, Deacon, as this thing moves towards you, opening its eye to look at you, and it's going to attempt to destroy you. So let's get into the combat rolls.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:53:59
Damn.
cuppycup 00:53:59
We'll never join you, we're the outer children.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:54:05
Yo meddler is so disrespectful, that's gonna be my new insult to people. Fucking meddler.
Ross Bryant 00:54:11
You are beholding the inner power of the school, the inner power of not just the school, but of England, nay, the world, the inner force of the universe. These are the 6, the inner children. So let's, let's talk combat. Combat in this game doesn't happen all the time. This is not like Dungeons and Dragons or whatever, where you're hacking and slashing and fireballing your way through orcs every session. Combat is pretty rare and it's pretty scary. Your characters have very few hit points.
Paula Deming 00:54:42
Yeah, we're people. We're just normal-ass people.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:54:45
Normal people.
cuppycup 00:54:46
Oh, normal is doing a lot of work there, Paula.
Scott Dorward 00:54:51
The characters are, let's not, let's gloss over the players.
cuppycup 00:54:56
Your characters, Scott? Okay, well, we'll have this conversation later.
Ross Bryant 00:55:00
Okay, so let's see who goes first in our little combat here as this crimson red, gelatinous humanoid thing blinks its eye at you and begins to stride for you, to dispatch you. So we see who has the highest Dexterity, and let's see who has it.
Paula Deming 00:55:21
I have 60 in Dex.
cuppycup 00:55:24
I have 65 and I didn't just say that because it's higher than Paula's.
Paula Deming 00:55:28
Thank you for your honesty, which we all believe.
Scott Dorward 00:55:32
Thomas has 80.
Bridgett Jeffries 00:55:34
Ooh, okay, and then Dirk is coming in with a 40.
cuppycup 00:55:39
Oh, does Dirk have a readied firearm to add 50 points?
Bridgett Jeffries 00:55:43
Always, yes, readied firearm ready to go. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Ross Bryant 00:55:48
Oh, great. You have your tommy gun ready to go? Okay. No, no, no, let's keep it simple. I think Thomas, with that Dexterity of 80, has the highest Dex, so that means you will go first. What would you like to do?
Scott Dorward 00:56:04
I think I'm going to demonstrate the most powerful combat maneuver in Call of Cthulhu, I'm going to try to disengage from the combat and run for my fucking life.
Ross Bryant 00:56:18
Which, in terms of Call of Cthulhu is always a smart move.
Scott Dorward 00:56:20
The mechanics boil down to making a Dodge roll to get out of the combat, and then once you've done that, you can get away.
Ross Bryant 00:56:30
Great. Okay, so let's see how well he does. Roll that Dodge, and the thing that is resolving in front of you will attempt to, you know, destroy you.
Scott Dorward 00:56:43
Oof, this was a bad time to roll 77 considering that my Dodge is 50, but, I feel like this is important enough, even though I've only got 45 Luck to spend 27 points of those Luck and leave my friends to die.
Ross Bryant 00:57:02
Great. So just for our our purposes, you're spending Luck to bring down your roll to what level of success
Scott Dorward 00:57:13
That would take it down to a regular success.
Ross Bryant 00:57:18
That's so awesome. Well done. Thomas Deacon, you have rolled a regular level of success to dodge out of the grasp of this gelatinous thing that is gliding across the stone floor at you. Unfortunately, it rolled a 15. So that's an extreme success.
Scott Dorward 00:57:40
Oops.
cuppycup 00:57:40
Goodbye.
Ross Bryant 00:57:42
Cool. I like that. That's good for me. So as I said, this thing seems to be made of blood. It seems to be in the blood of the 6 themselves. And as you look at the ritual that is taking place, it seems as though something is being transfused into Dick Willoughby so that he may become one of them. And it's just vaguely unseen back there in the candlelight, but you can see that something is flowing into him. You can't really tell from what source, but there's something else in the darkness back there that is nourishing him with its with its fluids. But you should be more concerned Thomas Deacon about the fluid that's coming at you, because the gelatinous arm whips tentacle-like towards you with amazing speed, and even though you luckily were able to turn and almost get away, this red ichor suddenly lashes around your throat and pushes up your chin and flows up into your mouth and nostrils.
Scott Dorward 00:58:49
Let's not be hasty here.
Paula Deming 00:58:53
Oh, no, I don't like it.
Ross Bryant 00:58:56
Yeah, sorry.
cuppycup 00:58:57
I like that we're like, stacking up content warnings in this preview episode so that people know whether they want to listen to the show.
Scott Dorward 00:59:03
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:59:04
Great. I'm sorry to tell you, I rolled rather well on my damage, and that gives you six damage. This thing pushes into your mouth and up your nose and is beginning to kind of like touch things in your head.
Paula Deming 00:59:18
Is that a major wound?
Scott Dorward 00:59:20
Yeah, yes, this is indeed a major wound. So Thomas has nine hit points in total. He's not a magnificent physical specimen,
Ross Bryant 00:59:29
That's right. So what this means, if you lose half or over your hit points, you then roll Constitution to see if you're like rendered unconscious or immobile by this thing.
Scott Dorward 00:59:42
So I've got a Con of 50, and I've rolled a 53. I could spend Luck on this to stay conscious, but honestly, this seems like a very bad time to be conscious, so I am going to succumb to the inevitable and slip into the void.
Ross Bryant 01:00:04
Yes, slip into the void. You slip into the void. Thomas Deacon's consciousness is wiped from your mind, not quite entirely, because for a moment, you hear strange echoes of music as your eyesight turns red, as though you see through rose-colored glasses. For a moment, you seem to taste sand in your mouth and an insatiable hunger, not just for flesh, but for power, as the rest of you see Thomas stop as the little tentacle like arm of this thing sags and disconnects from the shoulder. Whatever this arm was cascades upward, flowing into the nostrils and mouth of Thomas Deacon as he stands there and then he slowly turns towards you. His eyes blood red, blood, gelatinous tears flowing out of his eyes and nose and mouth as he turns towards you. There is no escape, says Thomas.
cuppycup 01:01:11
You're gross, man.
Ross Bryant 01:01:13
Yeah, I learned from the best. Let's get Sanity rolls off everybody.
Scott Dorward 01:01:21
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 01:01:22
Did anyone fail?
Bridgett Jeffries 01:01:24
Yeah, I rolled an 82 over my 45 Pow.
Ross Bryant 01:01:27
I'm terribly sorry to hear that. Um, that means you're taking eight points of Sanity loss right now.
Paula Deming 01:01:34
Oh, god, that's rough.
Ross Bryant 01:01:37
So please roll intelligence for me now to see if you understand what is happening.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:01:41
I have a 60 Intelligence and I absolutely critically succeeded on it. I know exactly what's happening. Yep, yep. Y'all, y'all can thank that eight. Thanks.
Ross Bryant 01:01:54
Great. Dirk, you see it all so clearly, the society of the 6 isn't a organization that goes back to the foundation of this school, it isn't an organization that goes back to the foundation of the abbey. This is an organization that goes back to the foundations of the world, when whatever this thing was came here through whatever gate opened that allowed it in, and it infuses its blood with its elect, and they rule the world from the shadows. And it has been gathering strength here, working in secret at Dunwich College for these centuries, which to it are the blink of an eye, a mote in its enormous cosmic existence. Its eye is upon you, and yes, you see it all come crashing down on you.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:02:52
So delicious. What a brilliant description.
Ross Bryant 01:02:55
But you also, at this moment, realize how terrible it's always been to be on the outs, to be outside of these societies, the friendships. That Dick Willoughby was one of the few people who allowed you in, that allowed you to be vulnerable. But here you have a chance to be a part of an inner circle. All you have to do is destroy one of the current members, and you can take their place. Fill yourself, take the Eucharist of its blood and join the 6, become one with it, and you will be in the inner circle forever. You will be an inner child.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:03:36
Brilliant!
cuppycup 01:03:37
Wow.
Ross Bryant 01:03:38
Great. So that is what's ringing in your ear, in your mind, and it sounds like it's your turn Crispin.
cuppycup 01:03:48
I think he's gonna look down at the floor, and maybe he sees like tiled stone and harkens back to the chessboard. So he's gonna try to use a little diversion here. And I don't know, Ross, if there are any improvised weapons available, but I'd love to grab, like, a large candle holder or a fire poker, anything that's available. And what he wants to do is kind of like a queen's gambit. He wants to feint to to one side with one hand and then come back with the other and strike with the improvised weapon. So look like he's gonna punch with his right and then smack him with a fire poker or something with the left.
Ross Bryant 01:04:26
Okay, cool. Yeah, I think you can, you can snag a hefty pewter candlestick.
cuppycup 01:04:34
Okay.
Ross Bryant 01:04:35
Make your make your Fighting/Brawl roll.
cuppycup 01:04:38
Yeah, I have the base 25%.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:04:41
Oh man.
cuppycup 01:04:42
Okay. You know, I rolled 47 but I'm gonna spend Luck. I'm gonna spend 22 Luck to make that a regular success, hoping that the creature doesn't beat a regular success, or even match it right? Because if you fight back, the defender wins if it's a tie. So I need a failure.
Ross Bryant 01:05:00
That's right.
cuppycup 01:05:01
Some nice Keepers will let you decide after the fact if you want to use Luck.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:05:04
To continue to buy down, yeah.
Ross Bryant 01:05:06
Okay, he was, of course fighting back and rolled a 28. I think that's a hard success from our friend. Golly. Golly golly. Yes, and maybe the last thing you see before a red arm is grasping around your face. It seems to simultaneously splash and grab around your whole head. You can feel its digits, with no knuckles, grasping and probing around your ears and chin as it also begins to push into your organs of admittance.
cuppycup 01:05:47
Yuck.
Ross Bryant 01:05:48
But maybe the last thing you see as you look down, as your eyes kind of goggle in your head, down at the pewter candlestick, where you would expect to find beautiful workmanship depicting the saints and Mary. You do see things depicted, but they have seven arms, and they seem to be sucking the lifeblood from humans that they are keeping as chattel. And that is the last thing that you see as the candlestick tumbles from your hands, as you too are now looking at your friend, well, let's see how much damage it does first.
cuppycup 01:06:23
Hmm, can the last thing he says when that happens, but he's gonna look at Dirk and be like every pawn must fall to save the king, and then just kind of reach out to Dirk.
Ross Bryant 01:06:36
You only take two damage, so you're fine. It's just kind of like it's suffocating you, but you're not yet...
cuppycup 01:06:42
Fine. In scare quotes.
Ross Bryant 01:06:44
You're not yet down.
Paula Deming 01:06:45
You're fine, use a bandaid.
Ross Bryant 01:06:48
It looks as though our friends are really on the back foot. Would anyone like to do anything else before we before we sort of draw a curtain over the inner children here?
Paula Deming 01:06:59
I knew it. I always knew it, but first we must stop this, and I will try to break the ritual.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:07:07
Oh, here we go.
Ross Bryant 01:07:08
I think the keen intellect of Edward St. Clair might know that they're surrounding Dick, there's something important about the six of them. I want one more roll off of Edward St. Clair to see how well you do at interrupting this ritual. Why don't you tell me how you're going to try to break the spell.
Paula Deming 01:07:31
I feel, honestly, like this is like a Fighting/Brawl, because I want to grab Dick Willoughby and pull him away from the group to try and break whatever connection is happening. But I only have a 25 in Fighting/Brawl, so...
Bridgett Jeffries 01:07:48
Oh, man.
Ross Bryant 01:07:49
Great. Of course, the members of the 6 and this thing are going to try to stop you.
Paula Deming 01:07:53
Okay, so I failed that. Now, here's what I would like to propose, Ross, if you don't mind. I think this is a perfect moment, a great way to end by saying, what if perhaps I had not only failed this, but I had rolled, say, a 98 or 99 or 100 and had fumbled?
Ross Bryant 01:08:14
Yes, fumbled.
Paula Deming 01:08:16
Let's say, for fun, a great way to end, I fumbled this failure.
Ross Bryant 01:08:21
Yes, you fumbled. If you're 50 and above, you fumble on a 100 it's like a critical failure. Yeah, if you're lower than 50, if your skill's lower than 50, it's on a 96 to 100. So let's say you fumbled right now. This again, much like pushing a roll, means that something terrible happens.
Paula Deming 01:08:41
Dick, come with me. We don't have to do this.
Ross Bryant 01:08:45
And for a moment, for a moment. Edward St. Clair, it's the embrace of your dreams. It's the one that you've maybe absentmindedly sketched in your notebooks. And Dick looks up at you with eyes clear and bright. His hand reaches out and touches your cheek, and you're there, silhouetted in the candlelight the strange thrum of this violence all around you, and he looks at you with this expression, as if to say, my hero. And that's a moment before a gout of red fluid explodes out of his mouth and into your eyes and ears and nose, and you find yourself utterly drowned under a cascade of this ancient, living, crimson fluid.
Paula Deming 01:09:33
But at least I died in his arms.
Ross Bryant 01:09:35
Oh yes, and I'll just say it's years later. It's years later. The austerity measures of UK politics are deep and rolling apace.
Scott Dorward 01:09:53
The true horror.
Ross Bryant 01:09:54
People wonder. Conspiracy theorists online talk about like strange cabals that may be running things from the shadows, but the sober minded don't take them seriously, and there on one forum we see the current Prime Minister of the UK, Dirk Stalin, who didn't show much promise as a young boy, but since his time at Dunwich College, has just risen meteorically through the ranks of society and politics, somehow, and seems to be an able and sturdy hand on the ship of state. And on this forum, you can see people discussing online. No, I promise they got to him. They got to him. Don't you understand? Look at this picture, and it's a video that just shows on a loop, Dirk waving at a crowd of admirers on a loop. And just for a moment, for a moment, if you freeze it just right, you can see that his eyes are blood red, as though something is inside him.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:11:03
Brilliant.
Ross Bryant 01:11:04
So that's that's Push the Roll, folks. That's how you play.
Scott Dorward 01:11:07
Yeah.
cuppycup 01:11:08
We salute our American Prime Minister, Dirk Stalin.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:11:14
Stalin, yeah.
cuppycup 01:11:18
I think we got through everything right, pretty much. I mean, we didn't do a chase and stuff like that, but the things that we use heavily in the games, I think we got through, yeah, yeah.
Ross Bryant 01:11:26
I think we got through everything that'll make the game coherent, hopefully to a first time listener or first time player. So if you liked what you just heard and are curious about other stories that we're going to improvise with all kinds of fun guests. We're going to be telling all manner of curious, weird, eldritch horror tales. You can find out more about it by checking out pushtheroll.com where you can find all about this show. You can follow it on your podcatcher of choice, and especially, you can join the Patreon if you'd like to submit brand new titles to inspire our improvised scenarios, just like Aaron did with House of Inner Children.
cuppycup 01:12:07
That was a good one.
Scott Dorward 01:12:08
Yeah.
Paula Deming 01:12:09
It was a good one.
Ross Bryant 01:12:10
For everyone who's already chatting about the show and excited about the show, really appreciate it. Tell a friend if you have a friend who's into horror, into weird or roleplaying games, tell them to check it out and visit pushtheroll.com. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you in the internet.
cuppycup 01:12:27
Oh, yes, and Bridget you'll come back for a proper game.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:12:30
Nope, hard pass. Respectfully decline.
cuppycup 01:12:39
With Paula and two other people.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:12:42
I'll consider.
cuppycup 01:12:43
Oh, thank you, everybody. That was great.
Scott Dorward 01:12:45
Oh, yes.
Bridgett Jeffries 01:12:46
Yeah, that was good.
Paula Deming 01:12:46
Thank you.
Ross Bryant 01:12:48