Amnesia in Call of Cthulhu

[Max Schreck]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Hardly a secret.

The narrator of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" did not know that he himself was a hybrid; the Innsmouth taint was certainly a secret to him.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Max Schreck

The narrator of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" did not know that he himself was a hybrid; the Innsmouth taint was certainly a secret to him.

Yes but he didn't have Innsmouth Look. If he had been ugly and smelly that would not have been a secret to him or anyone else.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Yes but he didn't have Innsmouth Look. If he had been ugly and smelly that would not have been a secret to him or anyone else.

I don't know. I've met some ugly smelly people that seemed not to know their state.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Yes but he didn't have Innsmouth Look. If he had been ugly and smelly that would not have been a secret to him or anyone else.

Actually, he did have the Innsmouth Look - one of the non-tainted Innsmouth people freaks out when he realizes he has talked too much to someone with the family resemblance...

[GodlessRose]

Lots of good ideas. Thanks, everyone!

Absent-Minded and Sleepwalking are just plain funny. I may have to try that. Fear of the sea is also great for Marsh ancestry - I wouldn't have thought of that, but it fits. And I agree that Nightmares is particularly appropriate.

I was thinking of having cultists as an enemy for a Great Race victim - they want what the Yith stole.

A while back I toyed with the idea of adapting the Innsmouth Look to 4e, but wasn't happy with what I came up with. I don't like Terminal Illness - I agree with Rev. Pee Kitty that it is a terrible disad. (I use a lot of his house rules, actually. I like how he thinks.) So I don't want that to be part of it. And the Innsmouth Look is a disadvantage that mostly just sets the character up to acquire other disadvantages (bad appearance and smell) in the future. It's not clear how to price a delayed-onset disad.

I was pondering modeling it with Distinctive Features and 5 nasty custom quirks - Creeping Fishiness (Smell), Creeping Fishiness (Appearance) I, II, and III, and The Change. Each requires a 3d roll once per year, with the appropriate bad thing occurring on a 5 or less.

But I'm not sure how balanced that is, or if it is even worth the trouble.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by GodlessRose

I don't like Terminal Illness - I agree with Rev. Pee Kitty that it is a terrible disad. (I use a lot of his house rules, actually. I like how he thinks.) So I don't want that to be part of it. And the Innsmouth Look is a disadvantage that mostly just sets the character up to acquire other disadvantages (bad appearance and smell) in the future. It's not clear how to price a delayed-onset disad.

You might consider a disadvantageous Destiny, instead.

Terminally Ill certainly is a disadvantage for someone that has it, but the duration of the game and the time-frame of the setting determine how much it limits the character, and your actions while you’re still alive aren’t going to be affected much, if at all.

[sjmdw45]

Random question: would a CoC character who gets hit on the head and contracts amnesia get any SAN points back?

-Max

[capnq]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Terminally Ill certainly is a disadvantage for someone that has it, but the duration of the game and the time-frame of the setting determine how much it limits the character, and your actions while you’re still alive aren’t going to be affected much, if at all.

Unless the illness is contagious, or even merely commonly believed to be contagious.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by capnq

Unless the illness is contagious, or even merely commonly believed to be contagious.

But those would be something else, not the basic TI disadvantage.

[Philosopher Rogue]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Random question: would a CoC character who gets hit on the head and contracts amnesia get any SAN points back?

-Max

That's a good question, I'm keeping that in my files for my next CoC game...

And thanks GodlessRose, at least you liked them. lol.