Guts or Spirit?

[eldritchplay]

I am new to this RoC and SW, just played my first game of RoC. We couldn't tell by the rules whether RoC recommends using guts or not. The latest SW rules say it is no longer in the basic rules, so settings only use it if they specifically state they use it. But my impression is that RoC rules were put together before that change.

I recognize we could do it either way we want, it is up to us. But is there an official ruling from the RoC peeps?

[taronstar]

For Realms of Cthulhu, Guts is essential. The fight against supernatural horror is one that cannot be easily countered by a high Spirit check. The reason why Sanity (1/2 Spirit + 2) exists is to account for people who have a high Spirit but little experience with the supernatural.

For instance, let's say one of the PCs is a priest. He might have a high Spirit and be considered very sane and strong-willed. Then he comes across a ghoul. Given this encounter with the Mythos, if he is completely unprepared (i.e. a low Guts skill) he is likely to lose some Sanity and have to reevaluate his view of the world. Since he has the high Spirit he is not going to "lose it" but he is definitely going to flee in terror.

Obviously, you can run it how you see fit, but Guts for Fear checks and Spirit for "overall sanity" is the way it is intended.

[eldritchplay]

Excellent clarification. Thanks!

[USP45]

I could have created another post for this question but the excellent answer in this thread probably covers a large part of the answer for my question:

Are there (any other) Deluxe specific things to chat about regarding RoC? (The Guts one was probably the most obvious.)

[taronstar]

Vacations play havoc with my response timing...

Anyway, other than Guts as noted above, I do not think there is anything in SWD that requires special modifications to apply to RoC.

[DerKastellan]

Well, I have my doubts about this.

I just reviewed the pre-generated characters of the "Achtung! Cthulhu" campaign adventure, part 1, and none of these does have the Guts skill.

This is a third party published adventure for RoC and this is a glaring contradiction. I wonder if this will creep up more over time the more RoC remains unrevised for the new standard rules?

[DerKastellan]

PS - I wrote to the publisher.

[razorwise]

Hello!

The Guts skill is officially used in Realms of Cthulhu.

Regards,

Sean

[taronstar]

I just reviewed the pre-generated characters of the "Achtung! Cthulhu" campaign adventure, part 1, and none of these does have the Guts skill.

I have not seen the material, but in my opinion it is not only likely but also intentional that pre-generated characters in "part 1" of any campaign have no Guts skill. Guts is used in RoC as a way to defend against the horrors of the Mythos. Characters who have no experience with the Mythos are highly unlikely to have a Guts skill at the start.

[DerKastellan]

Hello, taronstar.

This is highly unlikely. After chatting with a knowledgable friend about this the most likely reason is that the characters for this multi-system campaign (Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu and Realms of Cthulhu are supported) were generated for CoC's engine first - explaining for example "the Professor's" unbelievably high smarts score - he starts out at d12 (according to my friend intelligence is a crucial attribute in CoC's engine) - but also all the other inconsistencies.

I found 5 character descriptions with their sanity scores wrong (that's maybe a quarter of all PC and NPC descriptions). None have the Guts skill, something at least an experienced soldier should have ("having seen stuff"). Also "the Professor" is supposed to have researched the occult, and has already a "Knowledge (Mythos) d4" - so he could have a Guts skill as well. The characters show signs of not having been properly generated according to SW rules - like having edges they don't qualify for, or not knowing enough languages compared to their smarts die.

So, as far as I can discern, the CoC version came first, and the RoC version of the same document was a conversion, and as such has some errors.

Thank you all for your input. I think the right way to go will be to regenerate the needed characters properly, and include the setting-required Guts-skill. I see it more as a gauge for establishing how hardy a character is to begin with - after all it's a skill freely selectable at character generation, unlike "Knowledge (Mythos)". Kind of like a little dial that goes from pale little scared boy (scared of everything) up to Indiana Jones (seen worse).