[Nyarlathotep] Worst gaming experiences using Call of Cthulhu

[Lev Lafayette]

>From rpg.net, minor Nyarlathotep spoiler. 


Re: Your Worst Gaming Experience
Call of Cthulhu...

I am given a pre-gen character, made by the GM. It happens every stat is
below 10 save APP.

It wasn't that much of a problem even if the character wasn't really
good at anything (can't remember what was the occupation).

Anyway... game starts...
Introduction, some mysterious things happening...
Then party enter some tunnel complex...
Party spot a Deep One, everyone roll SAN, I fail (low POW/SAN).
Since the character has a low POW/SAN and the GM rolled max SAN loss, it
causes a major mental trauma (I think my character had POW 6 or like).
GM rolls on the phobias table and get "catatonia".
My character falls in catatonia, out of the story.
I ask the GM (since we are at the very beginning of the adventure) if I
can get another character/roll a new one. He replies "no".
Spent the rest of the adventure watching others.

---

Again CoC

Met a Cthonian in a tunnel, was carrying a bunch of grenades. Threw the
grenades at the monstruosity while fleeing (hoping to delay it at best).
Grenades didn't affect the Cthonian at all.

GM : "The shockwave of the grenade explosion throws you against a wall"
*rolls damage, announce far too much damage* "You're dead"

---

Still CoC, Masks of Nyarlathotep

Party enters pyramids, navigates its way to the core of the mystery to
be confronted by the Black Pharaoh himself.
Save, cautious, I had decided to stay away, unwilling to head straight
into what I could see being our collective doom.
Every other player characters ended possessed, killed or mad.
So I flee, hearing the demise of the party !!

GM : "There is a wide crack in the tunnel floor"
Me : "A crack ? And we didn't see it while coming there ?"
GM : "You fled without really paying attention, you're lost and in
another part of the pyramid"
Me : "So what ?"
GM : "A horde of hybrid monsters is after you, they are close."
Me : "I jump " (of course, I only had the 25% default score)
GM : "Roll..."
Me : *rolls dice* "I made it ! Great"
GM : "You keep running, the monsters jumped over the crack and still
chase you. In front of you, you see another crack in the floor"
Me : "Let me guess. Jump skill ?"
GM : "Yeah"
Me : *rolls dice* "Wohooo ! Success again !!" (I was really happy to
have succeed twice in a row and that I'd escape the place)
GM : "Ok, the chase continues. You run and run and you see another crack
in the floor"
Me : "Hmmmrph... ok..." *rolls dice* "Uh ho... Not thrice in a row.
Failure"
GM : "You fell in the crack, all the bones in your body are broken, you
die"

Epiloque : Among one of the players who confronted the Pharaoh, one was
sent back in time. But !! But he was brought back in our time and
released !!
The reason ? The GM said "someone (a PC) has to survive to tell the
story to the new characters".
I then realized that we all died in each session of this campaign save
this character. The guy just had a plot immunity decided by the GM so
"his character could tell the story from the start".

It was my last Call of Cthulhu game. I never played it again.
Those are experiences all coming with the same GM. So the problem was
him, not the game.
Still, they are among my worst gaming experiences.

We were so frustrated to die in every single CoC adventure that we
started to all create gangsters, policemen and ex-military types
characters (for the skills and also for the starting equipment).

One day, I asked the GM if the party could buy a 75mm field gun (I was,
sadly, semi-serious), planning to leave one of us by the field gun,
aimed at the potential danger zone of the adventure.
He refused. So we (collectively and without prior arrangement) all asked
him at once if we could at least buy a mortar.

Pierre
__________________
"Faut bien secouer les dés sinon, la chance, elle reste au fond"