CRYPT OF CHTHONOS
A Game of Weird Tales
by Bill White
PREMISE
What price is knowledge worth? To know the world as it truly is, to find out the truth, requires a descent into madness that will cut you off from those around you. Knowledge is alienation.Chthonos is the dark principle that governs the cosmos, that deepest mystery that is at the root of all lesser mysteries, and so the search for answers must eventually come to grips with themenace, mystery, and malice that flow outward from the chthonic source.
THE CHTHONIC WEB
The Game Moderator (GM) or if you like “Crypt Keeper,” prepares for the game by placing some initial elements ona “chthonic web” (CW) that will be fleshed out in play. The chthonic web is a network of characters and other creepy or at least intriguing game-elements called “nodes” that will ultimately be linked together by a number of different kinds of referential ties--clues, relationships, influences, etc. Nodes may be people, groups, places, or objects.
Setting: The late 20th century, northeastern United States.
Characters begin the game with access only to the “surface” of the chthonic web, and the point of play is to probe deeper. Each element is defined by the attributes Menace, Mystery, and Malice, which refer to its capabilities in terms of physical, intellectual, and social action.
For example, imagine that the GM has an idea for an adventure in which the characters explore a house haunted by the ghost of an artist who committed suicide after he was betrayed by his fiance, who then married his rival. The house overlooks the lake in which he drowned himself; his body is buried in a decrepit family mausoleum in a woody glen on the property, which now belongs to the third-generation descendants of the dead artist’s sister.
A simple CW for that game might start out looking like the diagram nearby. It’s got two pretty nicely creepy and evocative elements: a sad painting (made by the suicidal artist before his death), and the haunted house itself. There is enough space between and around them to add new elements and connections as needed during play. The CW is then presented to the players to inspire them as they create characters.
“Menace” has to do with the physical threat associated with the node. The painting is not a threat, but this could increase if it turns out that there are goons looking to acquire it or a curse attached to it. The house has a high threat rating because of its rickety staircases and rusty spiked fence-posts, all capable of being used by the ghost to bring interlopers to a horrible end.
“Mystery” is the degree to which puzzles are attached to or associated with the node; it is a measure of the curiosity or intellectual enigmaticity of the node. The painting is a modest curiosity, since it requires only a little digging to find out the details of its provenance. The house is considerably more mysterious, with secret passages, dim cellars, and seldom-visited rooms in abundance.
“Malice” is the extent to which the node is spooky, scary, or otherwise capable of delivering a shock to an individual’s consciousness, self-concept, or identity. The strangely evocative character of the painting should be upsetting only to the very, very sensitive, while the house will give everyone pause with its bumps and thumps and weird moaning noises.
In all cases, 0-2 indicates low levels of the attribute, 3-5 are moderate, 6-8 are high, and 9 and 10 are very high.
“Hidden” Nodes. The GM may but need not prepare “deeper” nodes of the CW, representing mysteries to be uncovered during the course of play. For example, the GM might decide that he wants to pre-determine the ghost’s eventual statistics: Menace 2 (because the confronted ghost has little physical power), Mystery 4 (the ghost will speak in riddles, but it ultimately desires to communicate its plight so that it can be laid to rest), and Malice 8 (because confronting a ghost is a soul-blasting, sanity-shattering experience).
Threat. Each node has a Threat score that
Nodes Created On the Fly. A rule of thumb for creating nodes on the fly during play is to divide points among the three attributes equal to double the Threat plus the number of players, including the GM. So a node created on the fly at Threat 2 in a game with a GM and three players would have 8 points to distribute among three attributes.
CHARACTER CREATION
Players create the “major characters” of the game. As characters are created, they are added to the chthonic web and connected to one another, directly or indirectly. They may also add supporting characters as needed, as may the GM.
Identity. Give your character a name and an identity--his or her professional, occupational, relational, or other characteristic aspect. It is a good idea to select an identity that will allow the character to engage with the weird elements of the CW and complement the thematic strengths of other characters.
Setting: Somewhere in upstate New York, 1977
Attributes. Each character has fourattributes: Physique, Intellect, Persona and Psyche. Determine their initial values by dividing 10 points among them. A “normal” person has a score of 2 in each attribute. All characters have an additional fifth attribute called Madness whose value can be set from 0 to 10 at the beginning of the game. Higher Madness means more in-game power, but makes your character more vulnerable.
Resources. There are three kinds of Resource points (RPs), and your attributes determine how many you begin the game with. You getAction points equal to Physique + Intellect. You get Investigation points equal to Intellect + Persona. You get Interaction points equal to Physique + Persona.
Issues. For each point of Madness your character has, you must create or increase one “issue” for the character: an Obsession, Fear, or Hatred. This issue has to be aimed at someone or something on the CW, including the character himself or herself or one of the CW’s mysteries.
The example here continues from the previous example. One player creates Sandra Bernardo, a shy but competent art restoration expert. The other creates Mark Widener, a widowed avante-garde performance artist. Mark is filled with self-loathing following the death of his wife, represented by the self-directed Hate the player created. To connect Mark to Sandra, Mark’s player suggests making Sandra Mark’s sister-in-law; her player agrees. The “character” of Julie Bernardo-Widener is created; even though she is dead, she may appear in dreams or flashbacks during play. She is not “statted out,” though she could be to reflect the extent to which her memory continued to influence the actions of her loved ones (using the “on the fly” node creation rule, she would have 5 points distributed among her attributes at Threat 1).
Game Master Resources
Give the GM a pool of Resource points that he can use to add dice to conflicts or other opposed die rolls. He starts with 6 plus 2 per player, plus 1 per point of Madness taken by the players. In the example above, the GM starts with 16 Resources.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The player with the most resources goes first, and may continue acting until he or she passes or drops below the resource total of the next higher player. In case of ties, the GM chooses. At the beginning of the player’s turn, the GM sets the scene with input from the player(s), continuing the action from the previous turn or starting a new scene as needed to drive the action forward.
Example: With a total of 18 Resource points to Sandra’s 12, Mark Widener goes first. The GM frames the scene: Julie’s memorial service, at a small stone church near her parents’ home in the country. It’s a bright fall day. Mark is there, white shirt and black tie under a dark leather jacket, stone-faced and numb. Sandra wears dark glasses and sits near her parents, hands folded in her lap. A minister in a grey suit says a few words in a sympathetic tone and then invites Julie’s loved ones to come forward and speak in remembrance of her. Hands push Mark forward.
Turn Options
There are three “standard options” that involve spending a Resource to make something happen in the game-world. Sometimes these efforts will cause conflict; a player’s turn may have one, many, or no conflicts. The standard options are act, investigate, and interact, which have to do with physical, intellectual, and social-psychological actions respectively. Players may sometimes wish to solicit suggestions from other players or the GM as to the specific details of what they introduce to the CW; lack of consensus may signal the need for a conflict.
Act. Narrate the character going somewhere or doing something physical: traveling, running away, fighting, chasing or tailing someone, breaking in to a locked building, and so forth. Spend an Action point. Add a new location, individual, or object to the CW if necessary.
Example: It’s Mark Widener’s turn; he is being pushed forward to say a few words in memory of his dead wife at a service in her honor. His player says, “I can’t do it! I need to get out of here!” He spends an Action point and says, “Mark pulls away from the hands pushing at him and walks quickly up the aisle and out of the church. Where can I go?” The GM says, “All the cars are in the gravel parking lot. The church is at the bottom of a grassy hill marked with gravestones in rough rows.” Mark’s player has him run up the hill into the graveyard. The GM adds a node to the CW, An old stone church at the foot of a grassy hill marked with gravestones, Menace 1 / Mystery 2 / Malice 1 / Threat 1.
Investigate. Narrate the character searching, doing research, exploring, asking questions, looking for clues, anything of that kind. Spend an Investigation point. Add a new fact to an existing node or establish a connection between two existing nodes.
Example: It’s still Mark’s turn. He says, “I wander around the cemetery, looking at the gravestones. I get to the top of the hill and I see a lake on the other side. On the far side of the lake is an old high-gabled Victorian house on a wooded hilltop.” He spends an Investigation point and draws a line between the stone church and the house on the hill, labeling it “across the lake.”
Interact. Narrate (or roleplay) the character’s exchange with another character (major or supporting) in a way intended primarily to negotiate the relationship between them rather than to gather information from the other character. Spend an Interaction point. Establish or strengthen a relationship between your character and another main or supporting character.
Example: Mark’s player passes, and so it becomes Sandra’s turn. The GM says, “The guests in the church sit awkwardly in silence after Mark books. What do you do?” Sandra’s player says, “I get up and go to the podium. I’m very nervous, so I stumble a little bit. But I say, ‘Julie was my sister, and she was my friend, and I loved her. I never understood her, but I loved her. All of you knew her, and you loved her too. If Julie were here right now, she’d tell us that we should do our best to love each other, because loving each other matters more than understanding each other. She always said that, and I never agreed with it. But I think I do now.” Sandra’s player spends 1 Interaction point and adds “+1” to the tie between her and her sister.
Deal With Issues. If the player chooses this option, it is the only thing he or she can do that turn. Narrate the character grappling with one of his or her issues, via therapy, meditation, religion, epiphany, or medical treatment. Roll a number of dice equal to Psyche while the GM rolls dice equal to the value of the Issue. If the player wins the roll, reduce the strength of the issue and the character’s Madness by 1.
Example: Sandra passes, and Mark is still on the hilltop overlooking the lake. Mark’s player says, “It is early evening, and the sun is westering behind the house on the hill. Everything seems peaceful and serene, and for a moment I don’t hate myself as much as I did before.” His Psyche is 1, so he rolls 1 die. The GM picks up 4 dice, one for each point of Hate. Mark’s player spends 3 Interaction points (he’s now at Action 4, Investigation 5, Interaction 4) and picks up three more dice himself. They roll; Mark gets 8 and the GM gets 12. There is no effect..
Gather Resources. If the player chooses this option, this is the only action his or her character may take that turn. Narrate the character doing something that someone with their identity might do that is unique to them or particularly characteristic of them. For example, Sandra Bernardo might be in her workshop or at a museum working to restore a Renaissance masterpiece, while Mark Widener might be visiting his wife’s grave or in his studio working to develop a new performance art piece. The GM awards the player some combination of resources equal to the character’s Psyche (e.g., so Mark’s rehearsal might merit an Action point award, while Sandra’s restoration might deserve some combination of Investigation and Interaction.
Resolve a Node. This means essentially to eliminate a node as a problem for characters. To resolve a node, the character must be at its location or in its presence, and the node must have had successes equal to the sum of its attribute scores allocated to it during conflicts over the course of the game. The player narrates a demystifying or rationalizing revelation that deprives the node of its power and mystery. For example, “I read an analyis by an art historian: ‘The painting by 19th century landscape artist Jonathan Sands achieves its effects by careful brush work and a palette uniquely adapted to the difficulties of landscape painting.’” The GM then augments that revelation with an addendum that deepens, extends, or reproblematizes the mystery, e.g., “But underlying Sands’ technical virtuosity was a powerful and expressive imagination capable of imbuing the inanimate landscape with enormous emotional resonance.”
Finally, the GM reduces the node’s attributes to zero, increases the Threat by 1, andcreates a new node connected to or maybe just near the old one. “Jonathan Sands, 19th century painter of exquisite American landscapes, Menace 0, Mystery 7, Malice 0,” for example, signalling an opportunity to investigate the painter’s background.
The Chthonic Web as Dynamic Representation of Play
At the end of the next turn, the update chthonic web may look something like this:
Setting: Ashen Springs, New York, Fall 1977
Conflicts
Conflicts may occur either between major characters or between major characters and some other sort of game-element (i.e., a node or supporting character). A conflict may even occur within a major character, if his or her issues are severe enough. Conflicts emerge as part of a turn, and a turn may include any number of conflicts. Usually, the GM will decide that a conflict results from a character’s attemptedor completed action; a side-effect of a conflict may be the nullification or prevention of a character’s efforts at action, investigation, or interaction.
During a conflict, the player will roll a number of dice equal to Psyche plus Madness. Psyche dice and Madness dice should be of a different color, because Madness dice that come up greater than the specified attribute signal potentially adverse consequences. Additionally, players may spend RPs to add dice to the roll on a 1-for-1 basis; these count as Psyche dice. If it is not the player’s turn but his character is present in the scene, the player may spend RPs to add to the other player’s roll (via “helping”), assuming that the two characters are not antagonists.
Example: The GM decides that Mark’s failure to deal with his issues in the graveyard triggers a conflict with his self-destructive impulses. “You are shaking with grief,” the GM says. “The pain is so bad that you don’t know how you’ll live with it.” Mark’s player says, “I try to stay strong.”
The GM picks up 5 dice: 1 for the Malice of the location and 4 for the self-directed Hate that Mark has listed. Marks player also gets 5 dice, 1 for his Psyche and 4 for his Madness. Mark decides to spend 3 more RPs for 8 dice total (he takes 2 from Investigation and 1 from Interaction). Four of the dice get treated as Psyche dice and four as Madness dice; call them white and red respectively for the sake of convenience.
The roll for Mark is versus his Persona of 4; he wants to roll low. He rolls Psyche 2, 3, 5, and 6. He rolls Madness 2, 4, 4, and 6.