The Outer Presence - House Rules for the Campaign

The Outer Presence is a rules-lite cosmic horror investigation game system written by Venger As’Nas Satanis. It’s extremely spare mechanics have an emphasis on character interaction and pick-up-and-play ease of use.

The RPG rules are written explicitly as part of the Old School Revival (OSR) these rules minimize character creation and complex dice rolls. There is also some admirable use of dice to model task difficulty, familiar to anyone who has read D&D 5e rules, but definitely simpler and more widely applied. As well as a total removal of skills, weapon stats, and even ability scores. Although for my money I might argue it isn't OSR at all, but really an ultra-modern conceptual critique of old-school games masquerading as a retro-clone.

However, for my purposes it's too unforgiving. I have heavily modified the system, preserving the core mechanics, but reintroducing some of these classical elements, as well as some devices to promote party interaction. My goals are two-fold, 1) to introduce classic RPG elements to a players with varying levels of game expereience, and 2) to create a more survivable character for campaign play through.

First, I am going to restore ability scores (using Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Willpower, Charisma, and Appearance), but limit the range to Low, Medium, and High. I also won't be using dice, but instead having the Professions (character classes) determine the primary attributes and let the players choose the rest.

Second, I'm going to codify the Health and Sanity mechanics to clearly gauge the characters condition. Both will also work on a three state range. Health using, "Healthy," "Injured," "Wounded," and "Dead" for the final (or not so final) stage. While Sanity uses, "Sane," "Neurotic," "Disturbed," and "Insane" for the last stage. Each step after the first will have some effect or limitation on the character.

Finally, I'm going to expand on the Bonus Dice used in the game which players can spend to improve the chances on a roll. I'll increase the number they receive for effective role-play, and introduce Award Dice that players can give each other. To improve character survival I'll also allow the use of Bonus Dice to "buy down" negative Health and Sanity effects. Perhaps even use a rudimentary "level up" process to increase stats, etc.

I'm also working on the adventures. Imagine the setting as a Lovecraftian pastiche of an alternate 1971. One where history combines the familiar with tropes from Pynchon’s Inherent Vice and The Crying of Lot 49, the Principia Discordia and Shea & Wilson’s Illuminatus trilogy, as well as Charles Stross’ A Colder War and "Laundry" series, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics, and the seminal 70's TV show Project U.F.O., of course, prefiguring The X Files.

In the next post I'll present the narrative introduction to the campaign world.