Sune Nødskou has creasted a Terror Deck, a play-aid for Trail of Cthulhu based on the ideas in the ‘Roleplaying Instability’ sidebar on page 72 of the core rulebook.
The deck consists of 60 card divided into three separate decks, called Chill, Fear, Dread and Terror. Each deck symbolizes a level of fear taken from the text box. (Chill: loss of 1-2 Stability points, Fear: loss of 3-4 Stability points, Dread: loss of 5-6 Stability points and Terror: loss of 7+ Stability points.)
Each card then have a suitable, erratic, unstable behavior written as a suggestion and keepsake to the player. The levels of irrational behavior is meant to reflect the four “levels” from the ToC rulebook.
Instead of asking the player to invent a strange behavior, ask the to pick a card from the right category, and have let them keep it face up in front of them, until the insanity is over. These can be printed out and stuck onto a set of standard playing cards.
You can download the PDF here.
These are great. I’ll be using these very very soon.
My only nit pick is at just a glance some more proof reading is needed.
Hi Mulciber!
I am very happy, that you like the cards. I haven’t had the time to test them myself, but my guts tells me, that my players will like ‘em. :)
I’d be very glad, if you will share the errors found with me. (English is not my native tongue, so translating from my original danish version, was a bit hard.)
Hi Sune,
Thanks for these, they look great! I especially liked the one for Dread where “You start to talk and talk…” :)
Some English corrections for you below, since you asked.
Chill
“Your voice becomes shrill and high pitched.”
Fright
“You stumble over words and say some incomprehensible phrases.” (or “utter” instead of “say some”)
“You shriek in fear and drop everything you’re holding.”
“You act totally cool, calm and eerily unaffected by the incident, but are haunted by serious nightmares.”
“You totally and maniacally deny being frightened in a very frightened and scared way.”
Dread
“You experience the incident as déjà vu, not remembering it as real afterwards.”
“You scream intensely after which your brain shuts down for some minutes, leaving you exposed and vulnerable.” (I’d suggest “madly”, “wildly” or “frantically” instead of “intensely”)
“You lose touch with reality, walking towards the threat…”
“You feverishly, hysterically and uncontrollably start to kiss, cuddle, and hug an object…”
Terror
“You suffer from adrenaline shock with a violently beating heart…”
There are some other ones where the words themselves are correct but wouldn’t normally be used in that context (I’d say “…deleting the entire incident…” rather than “complete incident”).
Hope this has been of help. :)
Hi Dave!
Thank you very, very much! I will start to incorporate your suggestions in the cards and – when I’m done – send them to Simon, so they can be updated on the site. :)
If possible, I would be very happy to receive some kind of feedback from you and your players, whether they enjoyed the cards or ran away screaming.
Hi Dave!
Thank you very, very much! I will start to incorporate your suggestions in the cards and – when I’m done – send them to Simon, so they can be updated on the site. :)
If possible, I would be very happy to receive some kind of feedback from you and your players, whether they enjoyed the cards or ran away screaming.
Hi Sune,
That’s a fantastic job if English isn’t your mother tongue!
Sorry, I had a madly busy couple of days so was unable to reply. Dave seems to have covered things but I’d add a couple of alterations if I may:
In the Chill Deck:
I think “slightly” probably fits better than “lightly” as in “You start to tremble/stutter slightly”
“Your breathing becomes slightly more rapid”
“You seem completely unaffected by the incident but suffer nightmares”
In the Fright Deck:
“You start to blink very rapidly”
“You start to sweat profusely” (maybe “copiously” if you like)
“You start to sob gently” (or gently start to sob)
“You shriek in fear anddrop everything you are holding”
“At unpredictable intervals you laugh and cry hysterically fit to break your heart”
In the Dread Deck:
“You start to talk and talk and talk without pause to control the situation and no one should tell you to stop as you know best how to keep calm and if they don’t understand that maybe they are frightened themselves” (or “.. you know best the best way to keep calm…”)
“You react completely irrationally and at random, either physically or verbally attacking everyone around you”
Hope that’s helpful.
I think there would be a market for these if Pelgrane printed them up….
I totally agree! And I hope, that Simon does the same! :)
Awesome. Thanks for sharing :)
I will be using them for the Eternal Lies Campaign when it is out. My players are eager to finish it and I want to do it with the printed book in my hands.
Squeee! That is sooo beautiful. I hope Pelgrane prints them. I would totally buy these.
Hello gents!
Are there any feedback for trying out the cards in actual play? :)