Author: Craig Pay

Two of my players just completed a Call of Cthulhu scenario I’ve written called Love to Hate set in 1929 Chicago. This is a sequel to the fantastic Love You to Death featured in Does Love Forgive? written and edited by Lynne Hardy, Airis Kamińska and Anna Maria Mazur. Love You to Death was a single player scenario which, in our campaign, left a loose end, brought to a conclusion in this sequel with a second investigator tagging along for the ride.

During the scenario the investigators needed to trace the whereabouts of a missing Chinese laundryman. They ended up at the fictional Xi’an Palace restaurant in the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown. This was an establishment owned by Madam Long, leader of the infamous (again fictional) Dragon Tong who controlled most of Chicago’s Chinatown.

I’ve spent a sizeable chunk of my time during the last couple of years re-engaging with a much-loved hobby from my younger years, roleplaying games. I’m currently obsessed with Call of Cthulhu, especially Pulp Cthulhu which gives my players the character survivability they enjoy in campaign play.

I particularly love the Pulp Talent system, but I noticed a gap in the talents with social skills. Whereas Charm and Intimidate are covered with the Smooth Talker and Scary talents (p.24 & 26 Pulp Cthulhu rulebook), Fast Talk and Persuade are not.

This got me thinking about adding a couple of house rule talents, which then became ten. And I’m working on another set of ten at the moment to appear in a later post. Bonus points if you spot the various references! Scroll down for a PDF copy of this talent table to print out.