Dark Ocean premade Campaign

[Shuckster]

So I'm currently working on a campaign that uses rules from Horror, Items from High Tech and a Magic system using guides from Magic and Thaumatology. Think Disney's Atlantis meets impostors, intrigue, survival horror and combat against the supernatural. Where the party can become corrupted by a malevolent deity, go insane or just turn on each other when their secrets get exposed with a few different endings in mind. I have materials written up that goes into detail about the game mechanics and suggests some character archetypes but I wanted to run it by the community since I've only ever been GM a handful of times and don't have anyone else around who will look it over.

The Player's Handout first draft can be found here, it's rather long but it should cover everything players need to know outside the vanilla rules with page references to the supplements needed:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e..._kD3S14Q1K/pub

it includes full descriptions of how the mechanics work as well as template frameworks for different character types and so on.

The GM's Handout is a work in progress

The List of Monsters and NPC's is a work in progress
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...sVB3bi0sF7/pub

The campaign itself has a flowchart of planned encounters can be seen here:
https://i.ibb.co/wQfdqTh/Dark-Ocean-...-flowchart.png

The encounters and locations can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...6A-uUEG2nP/pub

I'm open to ideas and suggestions of course and since I don't have much of a group I wanted to share these ideas with all of you,

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Shuckster

The Player's Handout first draft can be found here, it's rather long but it should cover everything players need to know outside the vanilla rules with page references to the supplements needed:

You weren't kidding about the length!


A table of contents might not be a bad idea, as well as a TLDR version or overview at the beginning that summarizes each section in a few words. Players will want to know the stuff they need, not everything all at once. When I make these sorts of documents, I try to put each section on a different document, but that's just how I handle the navigation and organization problem.

[Shuckster]

good idea! Most of my players probably wouldn't want to read this much anyway, Ill do some formatting but it'll end up looking something like this:

Introduction
Setting Statistics
Time Scale
Simple introduction

Cinematic rules and other campaign house rules
Cinematic Traits
Secrets (House Rule)
Wildcard Skills List
Superstitions (house rule)

Fear and Insanity
Fright Checks
Stress and Madness
Insanity Checks
Trying to calm down an insane party member
Resolve points (House Rule)

Corruption system
Effects of Corruption
Optional house rule: Full corruption
Gaining Corruption
Cleansing Corruption

The Power of Faith
The benefits of Faith
Faith based skills
The drawbacks of Faith
Faith and full corruption

Magic
Ritual Spells
Ritual to obtain Magery
The Magery advantage
Using Artifacts
Spells
The path of the Sea
The path of the Storm
The path of the Drowned
The path of the deep ones

The Ship and Crew
The U-59 Stats
The Ship’s Weapons
The Ship’s Crew
The Captain
NPC Crew template
Other Crew Members (Optional rule)

Character Template Suggestions
Professor
Doctor
Field Medic
Soldier
Sailor
Ex-Pirate
Engineer
Explosives Expert
Clergy
Templar of The Moon
Castaway
Stowaway

Examples of Equipment
Ranged Weapons
Melee Weapons
Armor
Other Equipment

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Looks fun. I'd totally play this.

[Shuckster]

minor update: working on the TLDR version and updating it to have a table of contents, I also have a list of artifacts to use as magical items and built my first monster, a wereshark for the abandoned battleship encounter

Wereshark [50 points]

ST: 16 [60], DX: 10 [0], IQ: 8, [-40] HT: 12 [20]
HP: 17 [2], Will 8 [0], Per: 9 [5], FP: 12 [0]
Damage: Thr 1d+1, Sw 2d+2
Basic Speed: 5.5 [0] Basic move: 6 [5]
Size modifier: 0 [0] Basic Lift: 51
DR: 1 [5], Dodge: 8 [0], Parry: 9 (unarmed, brawling) Block: N/A

Advantages (111 points): Combat Reflexes (+1 to active defenses and +2 to fright checks) [15]; Teeth (Sharp) [1]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Doesn’t Breathe (Gills, -50%) [10]; Pressure support 2 [10]; Subsonic Hearing [5]; Vibration Sense (Water) [10]; Amphibious [10]; Night Vision 6 [6]; Regeneration: Regular (1HP/Hr) (Not in the presence of Silver/moon blessed metal, -10%) [23]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; Born biter (MA p115) [0]

Disadvantages (-106 points): Appearance (Monstrous) [-20]; Bad Temper (9) [-15]; Berserk (9) (Triggered by feeding on living creatures, +20%) [-18]; Infectious Bite [-5]; Vulnerability (Silver/moon blessed metal (rare); Wounding Multiplier x3) [-15]; Dependency (Sea Water, Very Common, Daily) [-15]; Bestial [-10]; Hidebound [-5]; Gluttony (12) [-5] Ham-fisted [-5]

Skills: Brawling at 12 [4] Survival (open ocean) at 11 [8]

Attacks

Punch (12)
Damage: 1d+2 crushing
Reach: C
Parry: 0
Notes: Not their preferred method of attack, only resorting to punching when the mouth is occupied or too damaged to bite with

Sharp teeth (12)
Damage: 1d+1 Cut (cutting adds +50% to what gets through DR) + Infectious attack
Reach: C
Parry: No
Notes: Biting and holding on counts as a one handed grapple. Carries the curse of the Wereshark (see notes)

Notes
This monster is unholy, meaning blessed weapons gain bonuses against it, also these weapons count as “silver” for the purposes of it’s Vulnerability disadvantage.
This Monster is corrupting, meaning every point of damage it inflicts adds 1 point of corruption
Remember to account for the effects of Berserk in combat!

Infectious attack
when injured by the bite of a wereshark roll 3d vs the damage received (the victim only rolls this way once per day at most), if the roll is lower than the damage amount they become cursed to be weresharks in 2d days or whenever the GM feels like it.

Curse of the wereshark [0 points]
Advantages: Shapeshifting, Alternate form (Wereshark) (Triggered by the strong smell of blood, common -10%, uncontrollable -10%, Corrupting -20% 12 corruption points per use) [36]
Disadvantages: Secret (is a wereshark) [30] Nightmares [-5] Blackouts (no memory of time spent berserk) [-1]

Victims automatically gain 1 point of madness once the curse of the wereshark manifests due to body horror and the psychological trauma

Cleansing ritual [costs 15 character / resolve points]
The curse can’t be cured but a successful religious ritual and exorcism roll by someone with either true faith or power investiture can allow you to buy off the berserk disadvantage of the wereshark form along with the blackouts disadvantage of the curse if the victim has the character points to spend on that. The berserk trait will manifest during the ritual but subside once the ritual is complete. This represents casting out the evil of triton to some degree and allowing the cursed character to fight it or hope to learn to control it should they not yet have the character points or resolve points needed to buy the disadvantage off.

How to play this monster (for GM's or Foils)
Encountered on the abandoned warship, this is a pretty blunt instrument as far as a monster is concerned, starting transformed and frenzied the players may not even know the creature was once a man, this is just a big, hard hitting humanoid that gets pretty darn durable due to the berserk frenzy that can be triggered on damage on on taking a bite out of someone. The party will probably have to cause a crippling injury by dealing half its max hp to the legs or some other part of them in order to slow them down and escape, or just outright annihilate the creature quickly before it can become berserk. The real fun of this monster is the curse it can inflict on party members it damages. As a rule if the curse affects one player it isn't advised to have it affect another one with a small party of characters, though any npc survivors can be turned without any need to roll for it. Depending on the kind of fire power a party is working with one or two weresharks should be plenty, but if the party is boasting some serious weaponry, or you chose to turn up the optional cinematic combat rules feel free to add more.
Remember that in combat the wereshark is beserk, it wont use clever tactics or strategy and its wants to maul things!

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Shuckster

Berserk (6) (Triggered by feeding on living creatures, -20%) [-16]

Anything that makes a Disadvantage worse (eg: additional triggering conditions beyond the norm) is an Enhancement on the Disadvantage, so this should be worth [-24].

[seycyrus]

Originally Posted by Shuckster

...
Fear and Insanity
Fright Checks
Stress and Madness
Insanity Checks
Trying to calm down an insane party member
Resolve points (House Rule)
...

Nice work. I like to see how others handle things in their campaigns. It goes a long way in helping me determine how things go in my own game.

Under Fright checks, you reference the vanilla table. Is that sort of an example for players, to see what is possible, or do you intend to actually use all of it during play?

Edit: Reading further, I see where you go into more detail. Let me rephrase my question then, how much of the vanilla table do you use?

[Shuckster]

Anything that makes a Disadvantage worse (eg: additional triggering conditions beyond the norm) is an Enhancement on the Disadvantage, so this should be worth [-24].

Thanks for catching that, I fixed the berserk disadvantage, made it a bit more controllable to compensate for the trigger.

how much of the vanilla table do you use?

As for the fright checks, basically I'm not sure, I haven't actually run this yet but the idea was that the whole vanilla table would be used unless the character would gain madness, then instead I roll the insanity check tables found in horror, but I left it flexible. Some fright checks would be listed as a fright check "vs madness" by default which would mean the vanilla table wouldn't be used at all, this is to simulate truly cosmic horrors that the human mind can only sort of handle

also: I have written up a TL;DR version:

TLDR version

Introduction
This is a 150-75 point, TL6 (1910) Cinematic campaign where you play sailors in a supernatural cursed sea on a mission to recover a lost ship. The north sea has been turned into the dark ocean, a cursed stretch of water controlled by an elder god partially freed from his Atlantian prison who is opposed to a long forgotten druidic moon goddess now once again worshiped in England and with world war one around the corner tensions are high. Players take the role of a rag-tag team of experts with secret reasons to want to undertake such a deadly mission.

Cinematic rules
Characters have access to a list of cinematic advantages, wildcard skills and optional rules for this campaign including a rule about superstitions of the sea. Characters will be taking a secret disadvantage as part of the storyline and trying to keep it from the party to add intrigue, revealing another person’s secret gives you character points while causing problems for them. The character points earned by taking your obligatory secret are left unspent at the start of the campaign so you can buy it off when the secret gets revealed, but you can also use them as resolve points (see sanity bellow).

Sanity
This game uses a sanity rule that involves a mental version of hp that defaults to will called stress points that recover similar to FP, you lose stress when you fail fright checks. Lost SP acts as a penalty to fright checks. Failing a fright check on 0 SP means you make a Sanity check, which is a roll identical to a fright check that determines if you take a madness point or an insanity based negative effect. You can gain madness upto your Will and each point of madness adds to the roll to determine how severe the insanity effect is. You can gain resolve points (unspent character points to buy off insanity based disadvantages) in game through certain skills and your unspent points earned from your obligatory secret are your starting pool of resolve points.

Corruption
This game uses a corruption system where you will gain corruption points in game from doing certain things, some skill rolls can give you an idea of how much corruption a character has. Corruption can build up and eventually add new evil themed traits to your character as a result. You gain corruption from evil actions and corrupt magics etc but lose it from meritus actions, meditation etc. Optionally a group may choose to allow characters to become fully corrupted in the story if players want the option of playing as disciples of triton or cultists later on.

Faith
Some characters can have faith based advantages and skills that allow for supernatural abilities and traits due to worshiping a moon goddess opposed to the god of the dark ocean. These advantages are not available to normal characters but also have their own accompanying modifiers and disadvantages.

Magic
This game uses ritual magic with four custom paths, as well as a ritual that doesn't require a path to gain magery and spells without the need for rituals. Magical items called artifacts can also cast spells from them. Magic is corrupting as a rule but has a few house rules that make it very powerful.

The ship and crew
The party is sailing on a u-boat equipped with flood lights, a hydrophone, batteries, diving suits and pumps, sleeping quarters, rations and everything else they need to run the boat on a long voyage. The boat has deck cannons as well as torpedoes and the players can pool money to buy harpoon guns or machine guns as well. The boat has a full load of fuel and 45 npc crew members. Someone in the party is allowed to make the captain of the boat if they want to but otherwise an npc captain with a built in story relevant secret of his own is provided.

Character concepts and equipment
Loose are listed for a professor, doctor, field medic, soldier, engineer, explosives expert, clergy of the moon, templar of the moon, castaway and stowaway character concepts provided you don't have a concept of your own. Basic examples of all relevant gear for those characters is also listed.

[Shuckster]

Updated the player's handbook and now I have some relics and magic items as mentioned in the magic section:

Kitab Ydyu Alqadr (Book of Destiny’s Hand), the Forbidden Tome

Description: A very old translation of a text first penned in the early 700s which details the forgotten gods of the earth including Triton. This may very well be the only copy of this text found at an archeological site or otherwise hidden away from the world through the centuries. Anyone using faith or lore based skills to appraise the book without opening it will tell right away that it is full of corruption, but players without intuition will just see a very old looking book. The inside of the book is filled with ancient Arabic writing and images of a madness inducing nature to those who are unfamiliar with it. The images are only images, they shouldn’t be that frightening to grown, hardened adventurers and yet they unaccountably, supernaturally are, triggering something latent in the back of one’s mind.

Location: The island of cultists, but since that is very late in the story this relic can also be taken as Signature Gear by a professor or other character with an appropriate unusual background or secret.

Relic Power: None, cannot do magic by itself. (see Effect)

Effect: The player must be able to read the Arabic the book is written in if they are to use it.

The book itself has been used in magical rituals since early 950 CE or otherwise stored in mystical libraries or temples. This equals roughly a thousand years of use, making the book tainted with eldritch power so that it acts as a conductor for magical energies. Meaning it gives +6 to ritual magic. This is enough to buy off the penalties for ritual path skills just by using the book.

If the holder does not have Lore! or Ritual Magic skills The book functions as an instruction Manual for the “ritual magic” skill allowing people who don’t know it to perform rituals at -7 as the default for a very hard skill, however going slower and taking extra time on a ritual can buy off some of this penalty: +1 for taking twice as long, +2 for taking four times as long, +3 for eight times, +4 for fifteen times and +5 for thirty times as long. (for example a ritual spell that costs 6 energy would take 1 hour to perform normally, but you could get +3 to cast that ritual if you spent an entire eight hour work day doing it). Studying the book frequently can give the characters the ritual magic skill but will likely lead to full corruption (see bellow)

When used as a material for Research scholars with Lore! will be able to learn one of the following but only one secret at a time:

That the rituals of triton only work in his domain, the Dark Ocean and wouldn’t work on land or uncorrupted waters, that certain shrines to Triton are places of power where rituals are stronger (+1 to +3) and that the sunken temple of Triton is the strongest of all (+4 or +5)

That the language the rituals are cast in matters.You need to know a language in order to speak it obviously and this book doesn’t teach new languages to readers.
Language bonuses:
-5 for doing rituals in normal modern languages (like english), +0 for sacred languages (like latin) +3 for ancient languages (like eyptain) and +5 for speaking Atlantian (requires unusual background other advantage to justify being able to speak it)

That sacrifices to Triton during the rituals can enhance their power
Sacrifice Bonuses:
Food, Alcohol, Incense, drugs etc: +1 or +2 (+2 for sedatives or otherwise more useful objects)
Artwork, Jewelry, Valuable goods, Money: +1 to +3 (depends on the value)
Live Animals: +2 to +4 (+2 for sea creatures, +3 for birds +4 for land creatures)
Human beings: +1 to +5 (1 for a random castaway, 3 for an npc crew member, 5 for a party member)

That a ritual to gain magical power for yourself exists, and how you can perform it.
(See “Ritual to Obtain Magery” in the player's guide).

Drawbacks: This bonus to ritual magic doesn’t come without limitations, users of the book make a fright check every time they use the book for research of a ritual, and the initial fright check upon first using the book will automatically result in a point of madness if failed. Even if the player can’t read the book, seeing some of the images in the pages has a similar effect, but they get +1 to the fright check and don’t have to make one if they only see text. Rituals done with the book also add corruption equal to the energy the spell would have cost if it were a non-ritual spell. Using the book for non ritual purposes gives you corruption as if they had learned a level of Hidden Lore (1 point of corruption per character point that would take).

---

Lesser Relics
These are far weaker relics that might be found or bartered for in the Castaway’s Settlement, as prizes at the gambling table on the River Boat or as loot from cultists faced on the island. In general only one lesser relic should be available per run. If a player is especially insistent on starting with a relic as their secret and the GM is feeling especially permissive these lesser relics are also the best option.
All lesser Relics have a power of 12 and can only have one hard spell, no lesser relic will have a Very Hard spell as a rule. Lesser Relics are corrupting and require a fright check just like greater relics but these can be broken, lost or stolen far more easily than their major counterparts. In general, lesser relics shouldn't have spells that feel too wide in scope, a lesser relic of the Deep ones could have Control Sea-Creature but not Beast Possession. Drowned lesser relics might have command spirit but not bind spirit etc. This is ultimately the GM’s call. Lesser relics are unlucky according to the “Superstitions” Optional rule and can only be used once per session.

Drowned object ideas
Human bone wrapped in sailcloth
A fragment of a ship's figure head covered in algae, wooden hand or eye etc
A cannon ball wrapped in a rope with a boot tied to it

Storm objects
Flags or wind-socks from sunken ships that blow even indoors
A worn smooth whistling stone
A bag of waterlogged skin that is constantly full of moving air.

Deep-ones objects
A shark's jawbone covered in scrimshawed runes
A mummified, dried out starfish with a tiny human face
whale bone carved blades with seaweed handles, not of human make

Sea objects
The severed wings of an Albatross, worn on a necklace
A compass which always points to the holder's head, or otherwise spins
A map of waters unknown to man in impossible topography

[Shuckster]

Major Relics:

The Skull of Benjamin Briggs

Description: A musty looking human skull, with a woven cord of dried seaweed wiring the jaw to the top of the skull itself, a dried out dead starfish where the tongue would be and seashells embedded in the eye sockets. Atlantean runes have been scrimshawed into the bones in a decorative pattern over most of the surface and black pearls wedged in where the teeth used to be.

Location: Aboard the Mysterious River boat, at the games table with the Gambler

Relic Power: 15

Effect: The major relic of the drowned.
Roll 1d to determine the spells this relic contains when it is first used or identified (otherwise the first choice is the recommended one)
1. Final Rest + Awaken Craft Spirit + Materialize + Affect Spirits
2. Zombie + Animation
3. Summon Spirit + Command Spirit
4. Repel Spirits + Astral Block + Turn Spirit + Turn Zombie
5. Sense Spirits + Entrap Spirit + Bind Spirit
6. Zombie Summoning + Mass Zombie + Control Zombie
These spells do not have to cost any energy and do not require magery or rituals to perform

Drawbacks: Major Relics are all Corrupting (adds corruption points equal to energy the spell would have required to cast). They also require a fright check at -2 the first time it is used or witnessed and at -0 every time. Three uses per day.

---

Fiji Mermaid Idol

Description: A very smooth idol of a dark green, mottled stone depicting a diminutive creature with the upper body of a strange, hairless monkey and the lower body of a fish, unlike the Fiji mermaids of 1842 this idol depicts a living specimen, with far less natural features than that of the mummified sideshow hoax. The Idol is covering its mouth with both hands and bears carvings in a totally unknown alien language over the underside of the body.

Location: In the captain’s quarters of the abandoned battleship

Relic Power: 15

Effect: The major relic of the deep ones
Roll 1d to determine the spells this relic contains when it is first used or identified (otherwise the first choice is the recommended one)
1. Beast Speech + Rider + Master + Beast Link
2. Greater Shapeshifting
3. Permanent Beast Possession + Partial Shapeshifting
4. Beast Possession + Rider Within + Beast Seeker
5. Shapeshift + Shapeshift Others
6. Beast Summoning + Sea creature Control + Repel Sea Creatures + Control Hybrids + Repel Sea creatures
These spells do not have to cost any energy and do not require magery or rituals to perform

Drawbacks: Major Relics are all Corrupting (adds corruption points equal to energy the spell would have required to cast). They also require a fright check at -2 the first time it is used or witnessed and at -0 every time. Three uses per day.

---

The Storm Glass

Description: An oblong teardrop shaped glass globe containing clear liquid, these storm glasses were used decades ago to predict the weather. In normal storm glasses the liquid changes consistency, forms crystals or gets cloudy in response to changes in atmospheric pressure. This particular storm glass however is in a near constant flux, with impurities forming and dissolving through the moving liquid.

Location: On the cursed figurehead’s boat

Relic Power: 15

Effect: the major relic of the Storms
Roll 1d to determine the spells this relic contains when it is first used or identified (otherwise the first choice is the recommended one)
Predict Weather + Rain + Clouds + Storm
Shape Air + Air Jet + Wind + Windstorm
Fog + Spark Cloud + Spark Storm + Weather Dome
Lightning + Resist Lightning
Air Vortex
Explosive Lightning
These spells do not have to cost any energy and do not require magery or rituals to perform

Drawbacks: Drawbacks: Major Relics are all Corrupting (adds corruption points equal to energy the spell would have required to cast). They also require a fright check at -2 the first time it is used or witnessed and at -0 every time. Three uses per day.

---

The Conch Shell

Description: An abnormally large, dark and spiralling conch shell with seemingly naturally formed holes along the sides to act as an instrument of sorts. The shell itself isn’t especially disturbing apart from some teeth like coloration around the main opening, rather the fact that one hears whispers in an unknown language rather than the normal ocean sounds if listening to it, and than when blown the sound echos an unnaturally loud, clear and sonorous chanting in that same eldritch language with a background noise of screams which remains audible ringing in the heads of listeners long after the conch isn't being blown anymore.

Location: In the ruined living quarters of the corrupted Lighthouse.

Relic Power: 15

Effect: The major relic of the Sea
Roll 1d to determine the spells this relic contains when it is first used or identified (otherwise the first choice is the recommended one)
Waves + Tides + Currents + Seek Coastline + Laceanmancy
Walk On Water + Walk through water
Body of Water
Shape Water + Water Jet + Whirlpool
Swim + Breath Water + Water Vision
Create Water Elemental + Control Water Elemental
These spells do not have to cost any energy and do not require magery or rituals to perform

Drawbacks: Drawbacks: Major Relics are all Corrupting (adds corruption points equal to energy the spell would have required to cast). They also require a fright check at -2 the first time it is used or witnessed and at -0 every time. Three uses per day.

----

One of My Player's wanted a supernatural item as signature gear and this is what I built for that:

Obsidian Mirror (Signature Gear of Professor S)

Description: An Inca era obsidian mirror, about the size of a dinner plate with a perfectly smooth sheen to the black reflective round surface.

Location: Found in a temple in south or central North America sometime before the campaign started. The player outlined the idea of the mirror and what it would be able to do. I outlined the mirror as a bundle of heavily modified advantages and a disadvantage and priced it with the rule of 1 character point being equal to one thousand GURPS dollars.

Signature gear cost: 1 character point ($6000 at TL6)

Relic Power: Does not cast spells on its own but has magical traits that give 10 points worth of advantages and -4 points worth of disadvantages to the character who has it as Signature Gear (these must be paid for with their character points)

Effects: Gives the following advantages in addition to “Signature Gear (Obsidian Mirror) [1]”

Mirror Vision: Detect Magic (Occasional) (Linked +10% “Detect: supernatural corruption (Occasional)” both with, Short-Range 1, -10% Vision Based -20%, Breakable (No DR) -20%, Can be stolen (thief must win a contest of DX or ST) -30%, Unique (cannot be replaced) -25% with Feature: Hidden Lore replaces IQ for the Roll -0%) [1]

Mirror Ritual: (Same as Sin Eating) (Affects others (one other person at a time) +50%, Selectivity +10%,Short-Range 1, -10% Vision Based -20%, Breakable (No DR) -20%, Can be stolen (thief must win a contest of DX or ST) -30%, Unique (cannot be replaced) -25%, Limited use (5 times per day) -10% with Feature: Hidden Lore replaces IQ for the Roll -0%, Can be used on the other side of Split Personality -0%) [9]
Note: Sin eating is a version of blessed from the Ravens N’ Pennies GURPS Blog, which is listed as a 15 point version of blessed that allows the user to take on all the corruption points of a willing target after spending an hour with them.

Drawbacks: Gives the following disadvantage with the mirror as a mitigator, meaning the disadvantage will be suffered if the mirror is broken or lost.

Curse when broken: Split Personality (Self control 15) (Trigger (Seeing own Reflection, very common) +10%, Mitigator (obsidian mirror)-60%) [-4]