USING LUCK

Players may use their hero’s Luck score to affect certain outcomes or die rolls in the game. A player may only spend Luck to affect their own hero.

The points spent are deducted from the hero’s Luck score, which reduces the chance of passing a future Luck roll, and reduces the amount of Luck points they can go on to use to affect other skill rolls, and so on.

INVESTIGATOR LUCK SPENDS

Investigators may use Luck points on the following things:

Adjusting Skill or Characteristic Rolls

Cost: 1 for 1 basis

After the player has made a skill roll (using a skill or characteristic), Luck points may be spent to alter the result. The player can use Luck points to alter a roll on a 1 for 1 basis. The amount of Luck points that can be spent in this manner is limited only by the character’s available Luck score.

For example: Dirk Dagger is being attacked by a hideous swamp beast. The swamp beast rolls and gets an Extreme success, aiming to tear out Dirk’s throat! Unfortunately, Dirk fails to dodge with a roll of 63, far above his Dodge skill of 35. This is life or death, and so Dirk’s player goes all out and spends 56 of Dirk’s Luck points to convert the Dodge roll to an Extreme success (thus changing the roll to a 07). Both have scored an Extreme success but, in a tie, the dodging character wins. Just as it looks like the swamp beast is about to kill Dirk, our hero springs back on the heels of his feet, staggering backward to avoid the blow. Dirk now has only 4 Luck points remaining. It’s a desperate situation and Dirk had better think twice about engaging the swamp beast again—his best option is to hotfoot it away the first chance he gets, leaving his steadfast colleagues to cover his retreat!

Adjusting Weapon Fumble or Firearm Malfunction Outcomes

Cost: 10 Luck

When a roll indicates a melee weapon fumble or a firearms malfunction, 10 Luck points may be spent to ignore the result. The actual die roll result is not adjusted and the attack is still a failure. Luck is spent to avoid the dire consequences of the roll, allowing the hero to avoid a weapon breaking or a firearm jamming, and so on.

Halving Sanity Loss

Cost: double the Sanity point loss

When a Sanity roll has been failed, the number of Sanity points lost may be halved by spending Luck points equal to double the Sanity loss. For example, a hero is about to lose 8 Sanity points from seeing a horror from beyond (the Keeper has rolled 1D10 to figure the loss). The hero spends 16 Luck points in total, reducing the loss from 8 to 4 points

Note that heroes with the Resilient Talent can also apply its effect to the Sanity loss, after the Sanity loss has been halved by spending Luck.

For example: Dirk sees an awful monster and fails his Sanity roll. The Keeper rolls and gets the maximum Sanity loss of 20 points. Dirk’s player decides that now is not a good time for Dirk to lose it, and so states he is spending 40 Luck to halve the Sanity loss to 10 points. Dirk also has the Resilient Talent; his player decides to spend 5 further Luck to reduce the Sanity loss by 5. Dirk is now losing only 5 Sanity points but has spent 45 Luck points in doing so.

Avoiding Unconsciousness

Cost: 1 Luck point, doubles each round thereafter

Whenever a hero fails a CON roll to remain conscious, or if they suffer automatic unconsciousness, they may spend 1 Luck point to remain conscious until the end of the current round. For each successive round thereafter that the hero wishes to remain conscious, the cost doubles—2, 4, 8, 16, and so on—and should be spent at the start of each round.

As soon as their Luck points run out or if they no longer wish to spend Luck, they immediately fall unconscious. This is a mixed blessing, as an active character may present a more attractive target for further damage.

For example: Jake Ironside loses half of his hit points in a single attack and fails his CON roll. He automatically falls prone and should become unconscious, but instead he spends 1 point of Luck to remain conscious to the end of the present round. At the start of the following round, he spends 2 Luck points. At the start of the third round, he spends 4 Luck points. A total of 7 Luck points has been spent, at which point Jake has reached safety. At the start of the fourth round Jake doesn’t spend Luck points, and automatically falls unconscious.

It’s Only a Scratch!

Cost: 20 Luck

Wounds can sometimes look a lot worse than they actually are. Pulp heroes are able to call upon their inner reserves and gain an instant health boost to reduce the damage they have received. When damage has been taken, a hero may spend 20 Luck points to gain an immediate 1D6 hit points recovery. Hit points gained may not exceed the hero’s maximum hit point total.

In some situations, this may bring a hero back from the brink of death or simply give him or her an adrenaline rush to shake off their injuries and get on with the job in hand. The Keeper may also allow this health gain to provide faster recovery for a severely injured hero (allowing the Luck spend to be made sometime after the injury was received).

Avoiding Certain Death

Cost: all Luck points, 30 points minimum spend required If a hero has 30+ Luck points remaining, all of these Luck points may be spent to bring a hero back from the brink of death. The hero has avoided certain death and immediately regains 1D6+1 hit points (see Death’s Door), turning up in the next scene in an appropriate state.

The player (possibly assisted by the Keeper and other players) should describe what happened; how their hero managed to survive what seemed like certain death. Players are encouraged to dramatically embellish the story of their near-death escapade (within reason!) Such explanations can really develop the hero’s legend and be a lot of fun too.

Invoking this rule means the hero will be at zero Luck for the rest of the session and unlikely to regain 30 Luck points for one or more sessions thereafter, making the hero vulnerable if further death-dealing encounters ensue.

What Luck Cannot Buy

Luck points cannot be spent on:

• Luck rolls.
• Adjusting damage rolls.
• Altering the result and outcome of a pushed roll.
• Sanity rolls (Luck may be used to adjust Sanity losses, but not the Sanity roll itself).
• Skill experience checks (as per the Hero Development Phase).

In addition, heroes only receive skill experience checks for skill roll successes made without spending Luck points.

LUCK RECOVERY

At the start of each session of play, each player makes a Luck Recovery roll. This is rolled in the same way as for normal skill improvement (see page 94, Call of Cthulhu Rulebook). The player rolls 1D100 and if the roll is higher than their current Luck score they add 2D10+10 points to their Luck score. If the roll is equal to or less than the hero’s present Luck score, 1D10+5 Luck points are recovered.

Naturally, a hero’s Luck score will vary throughout play, but may never exceed 99 (excess points are lost). The starting Luck value is not used again in the game and can be exceeded in the course of play.

For example: Dirk managed to escape from the swamp beast and the Keeper decides to end the gaming session there. At the start of the following session, Dirk’s player makes a check for Luck recovery. Dirk’s Luck is currently at 4 points. The player rolls 36 (above the current Luck, thus a success) and so adds 2D10+10 to Dirk’s Luck, getting 18 in total (3+5+10). Dirk has a Luck score of 22 for this gaming session.

CRITICAL SUCCESSES AND FUMBLES

A critical success only arises from a natural dice roll of “01.” Should Luck points be used to lower a roll to 01 the result is always an Extreme success (rather than a critical one). The only exception to this would be in combat where two opponents have tied (both scoring Extreme successes), if one uses Luck to lower their combat roll to “01” it means that they beat their opponent’s level of success (treat the result as an Extreme success though).

As with standard Call of Cthulhu, a naturally rolled critical success always means something beneficial has happened (determined by the Keeper and the situation at hand). Likewise, a natural fumble (“100”) means something bad has happened. Note that while Luck can be used to avoid the effects of a fumble or malfunction in combat, for non-combat skills a natural fumble (“100”) cannot be avoided!