Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for running Cthullutech? Is there a best mood and tone to maintain (bleak, flickering hope or heroic, for example). What campaign basis allows for the most diverse collection of PCs to work together while being reasonable in the setting? I want my PCs to interact with the typical setting (everyday people, the cultures, etc) so I don't think I want to run a straight military campaign. But some of the players seem to really want mecha. Not sure how to set things up exactly. I haven't run a Mythos inspired game before.

Take these suggestions with the caveat that I have not actually run a game. I have read most of it.

I would start with TWO Preludes.

First prelude, they start as mecha pilots (character creation, etc.). Play about 3 sessions. This should a) introduce some grand plot to solve (in the campaign) and b) end in their inevitable horrible deaths.

Second prelude make new Tager characters, each one should know one of the Mecha characters and describe how the previous character's death impacted the new character. Play about 3 sessions. This should exacerbate the aforementioned plot jabbing in some extra hooks for good measure. This prelude will also end with their horrible deaths.

Start the game. The agents will have known the previous 2 sets of characters in some capacity. Link them into the past scenarios AND the forthcoming plot. Let this be the foundation of a longer campaign.

When they get off track or bored, create a new flashback scenario. Have them generate characters from another factions and play a handful of sessions to reveal some aspect of the setting or your plot. This can be "enemy" factions or just other areas of the same faction. Then, come back to the regular campaign with the regular characters.

This lets them explore different areas and styles of the game HOWEVER having dealt with the upfront war and supernatural action, the sense of foreboding and cosmic insignificance will slowly build in the players having to return to mortal agents trying desperately to stop something.

Just my two cents. It's the idea I have been mulling over when I pick the game up someday.  :-)

I enjoy the OIS set up. It does mean Tagers are out unless the player is willing to accept extreme restrictions, which actually works well to balance out the Tager's compatibility issues TBH

Nearly every other type of PC is OK, including mecha pilots that are good in personal combat, can use PA pretty regularly, and even mecha for those big raids. We had skill junkies, sorcerers, para-psychics, xeno-mixes, and fighting style specialists.

I played a tech specialist who was also the pilot/driver and operated drones. In a climatic scene we raided an immigration centre in London operated by Deep Ones. I was flying a VTOL, with the sorcerer onboard doing spells, as the mecha pilot piloted a mecha and two other PCs (the para-psychic and the fighting dude infilitrator) snuck inside. Good times.

The OIS also provides a lot of initial motivation and structure (criminal investigation and cases) but with lots of flexibility (the OIS are given loads of power). OIS agents have a home life and live in cities, but may also get shipped off for raids and overseas investigations.

In the game I played, my PC formed a relationship with a corona who turned out to be a Tager spying on the OIS. Good times were had again when the Dhohanoids came to call.

If I was going to run a mecha game, I would be tempted to run Engels as there is more room to loosen the military vibe and really focus on the psychological stuff. However, even here, you are more limited for PC types as you will want most PCs to be mecha capable.

Skywalker said pretty much what I was going to say.  The OIS offers a lot of room for different "adventure" types.  

The campaign I played in had sessions that focused on infiltration, assaults, investigations, days off, etc.  The characters ranged from normal soldiers to para-psychics to mecha pilots and even a tagger.

Tone wise, do you (general you) run C-tech with a feeling impending (and inevitable) doom and gloomy nihilistic atmosphere. You can succeed in some ways but you're basically trying to hold back the tide. Which is more similar to spiritual parent (CoC)? Damnation View gives that impression quite strongly.

Our GM ran it as a stemming off the inevitable as best we could.  The masses went on their daily lives none-the-wiser about how bad it really was.  Our PCs knew it was really bad, but we fought and fought hard because maybe, just maybe, if we win enough of the battles we might start winning the war.  There were many sessions that were pretty heavy in thier tone and mood.  Lots of "no good choices" and "yeah, we won but look at what it cost us" missions.

Then metaplot stuff happened and it was like a gut punch and felt like everything we had done was pointless.  It took a heavy toll on the PCs and there were some sessions of dealing with that realization.  We lost a few due to sanity issues after that.

Then the rest of us all said fuck it!  We won X, Y and Z, and it mattered to everyone involved right then and there so that's what we were fighting for- the here and now.  After that it was a less oppressive mood but still a hell of a lot of fun.

Quote from: Nexus;812859Tone wise, do you (general you) run C-tech with a feeling impending (and inevitable) doom and gloomy nihilistic atmosphere. You can succeed in some ways but you're basically trying to hold back the tide. Which is more similar to spiritual parent (CoC)? Damnation View gives that impression quite strongly.

Yes, I do. My four demo scenarios all have that tone pretty strongly. In the OIS campaign, the PCs are best of the best and there are victories to be had along the way. But the threat is never ending and the casualties mount up.

One of the fun parts of that OIS campaign was all the B-grade philosophising and pontificating that that tone creates. What is right and wrong? What costs are worth it? When did we stop being human?  It felt just like an anime show

Hm, I may have to seriously consider this or sit down and have a long talk with potential players and consider how I feel about it.

Quote from: Nexus;812886Hm, I may have to seriously consider this or sit down and have a long talk with potential players and consider how I feel about it.

If you look at the underlying inspiration, they are plenty of upbeat moments in the like of Robotech, Guyver and even Evangelion. You still root for the good guys, beat up bad guys and form relationships that can make you giggle. These are often exaggerated all the more given the bleakness that surround them.

On saying that, you could play a more consistently upbeat Cthulhutech game, punching Cthulhu in the face and saving the day. Not sure how well it will jive with the setting as presented and I am guessing that it would miss some of the best parts of the setting.

I think my players are going into the game with outlook that its grim, techno fantasy and urban horror with Mythos elements and overtones; bleak, dangerous and scary but "winnable" if you're clever, brave and lucky to varying degrees. The revelations in made explicit in Damnation View blow that assumption out of the water. Mortal life is pretty much doomed, its coming soon (roughly a year) and there's squat anyone can do about it. It's not an objectively bad way to set up a game but it would take some specific tastes and outlooks to really get into it that I don't think my players share, at least not in an rpg. I find it something of a downer. Not really even tragic.

OTOH, I wanted to try and run this game as straight and canon as possible but I wasn't fully aware of the timeline when I decided. I really like the setting on the other other hand and I've got several friends that are really hyped to play.

Quote from: Nexus;812906I think my players are going into the game with outlook that its grim, techno fantasy and urban horror with Mythos elements and overtones; bleak, dangerous and scary but "winnable" if you're clever, brave and lucky to varying degrees. The revelations in made explicit in Damnation View blow that assumption out of the water. Mortal life is pretty much doomed, its coming soon (roughly a year) and there's squat anyone can do about it. It's not an objectively bad way to set up a game but it would take some specific tastes and outlooks to really get into it that I don't think my players share, at least not in an rpg. I find it something of a downer. Not really even tragic.

OTOH, I wanted to try and run this game as straight and canon as possible but I wasn't fully aware of the timeline when I decided. I really like the setting on the other other hand and I've got several friends that are really hyped to play.

I am not sure that it needs be presented as oppressively as that. The fact that the metaplot continues for a year after Damnation View in Burning Horizons shows its not quite that bad.

IME game's focus on a local scale and victories (even world saving ones) are totally possible at that level. A good example of this is in Damnation View, where the "default" result of the attempt to raise Shib Niggurath is that the PCs stop it (and save the world). This is continued in Burning Horizon where NEG effectively take on the Migou with the arrival of its second hive ship.

But some things will be beyond the PCs in any meaningful way and I think there is no "win the setting" button. This isn't that much different from most RPG settings. Dangers are ever present and continuous, yet the PCs struggle to do good deeds.

Also, if you want get morbid, everyone's metaplot has the same conclusion. I mean, we are all going to (theoretically) die at some point. It's what happens between now and then that matters.

I imagine a LOT of people alive during WWII thought the end of the world was on the other end of that war. Even what appears to be impending doom may turn out in the end to have just been impending...

I feel the game is going to play with as much hope or dissolution as your player's want it to.

Quote from: Skywalker;812907I am not sure that it needs be presented as oppressively as that. The fact that the metaplot continues for a year after Damnation View in Burning Horizons shows its not quite that bad.

IME game's focus on a local scale and victories (even world saving ones) are totally possible at that level. A good example of this is in Damnation View, where the "default" result of the attempt to raise Shib Niggurath is that the PCs stop it (and save the world). This is continued in Burning Horizon where NEG effectively take on the Migou with the arrival of its second hive ship.

But some things will be beyond the PCs in any meaningful way and I think there is no "win the setting" button. This isn't that much different from most RPG settings. Dangers are ever present and continuous, yet the PCs struggle to do good deeds.

Well, its a big relief that the 2nd Hive ship isn't a big Game Over hanging on the entire setting (unless you want to play Migo) that its presented as. There's a big difference between "Everything dies at some point" and "Everything and everyone you ever cared for, even your entire species is going to die screaming or be turned into will-less slaves for ever and always in slightly over a year" .

And some positive stuff was introduced in Burning Horizons too, such as:

Spoiler

The Coalition of Independent Solar Colonies

Thanks to everyone. The additional information makes the metaplot feel much less oppressive and I think I can sell an OIS game pretty easily. It sounds good and flexible.