Writing A Call of Cthulhu Scenario

So, this evening I find myself wading through a variety of notes and information to compose the next chapter in my groups Call of Cthulhu campaign. It occurs to me that Call of Cthulhu is an odd bird in regards to adventure writing.

For a lot of other games the adventures are a lot more strait forward. "Travel from Point A to Point B, Fight Monster at Point B, Bring Monster's Head to Point C, Return to Point A for after party". That's a rather simple way to look at it, but it does represent the structure of a lot of games like Dungeon and Dragons. Anything that's really driven by the action tends to be easier to write. I mean, Stats and scene desciptions are easy to generate when they don't offer any real plot impact.

Now, Call of Cthulhu is different in that it's more investigation driven rather than action driven. What does that mean? Well, more or less, every little NPCs and scrap of information to be found counts. Simply walking past an NPC or avoiding a location can drastically alter the information the players gather. In a game where good information is essential to survival, this can be disastrous.

Take for example our first casualty: George Franklin.

George had the unfortunate experience of being overtaken by a Shan, one of those terrible insect of Shaggai. For several years the Shan lay dormant in George's mind after it was subdued with shock therapy until an encounter with The Yellow Sign and the subsequent stress re-awakened the creature. This Shan took the form of an alternate personality, performing night time misdeeds and using George to secretly collect arcane information that would allow it to return to it's world. The clues to all this lay with George's ex-wife in Boston and her new husband, once George's friend and fellow investigator...

Except the party never went to Boston and never discovered the information that would have lead them to believe George had something boggling around his brain stem. Instead they took some initiative and skipped past that bit and went strait on to other George's bit plot. A failled amazing fist/punch rolls later and it looked like ol' George was about to kill the entire party in order to open a portal to the Shan home world! Luckily for the party, and unlucky for George, and swift kick to the ribs ended those plan as well and that character's life.

Since then I feel like my players have done a great job of really getting into the investigative part of the game. They've taken their time, followed all the leads, and it's led them to more decisive victories against the mythos. The plots aren't being laid out in front of them to go through the motions, but the more they play the clearer the threats of the mythos become. Dangerous indeed, but a lot of fun.

The next adventure takes place in New York City, where the investigators have followed their fellow Rex in the hoped of saving him from the ever tempting power of the Mythos. SO, on top of re-familiarizing myself with 1920's NYC, writing up histories, personalities, and stats for Rex's extended family, as well as deciding the general plot points this adventure will follow, I'll have to write up all the information that the players will be able to discover through research, investigation, and putting sole to pavement. Even if they choose to overlook or ignore it.

Another reason I love this game, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Miniatures and Call of Cthulhu

There's a lot of debate on wether miniature help or harm a Role Playing Game, particularly one like Call of Cthulhu. For the most part the game is simple. The system tends to blend into the background; often times a player might only have to roll dice a handful of times through a session. Some sessions don't have any dice rolling at all!

So, why do I find myself busting out the Battle-Mat and the paper chits whenever combat arises?

Well, there a few reasons. First and foremost, combat in Call of Cthulhu is deadly. VERY deadly. So deadly that I want to give my players a good sense of what is going on when they bullets start to fly. So, instead of simply describing a Deep One crouching in a dark corner of the room, I can give the players an idea of where they are and the layout of the room. No surprises means a "fair" fight.

To a lesser extent it gives players a sense of self in a fight. The power of a cool looking mini can spark the imagination. However, while I do enjoy painting miniatures for wargaming purposes, I don't find myself with a lot of time or money to buy and paint a slew of cultists and beasties for my weekly Call of Cthulhu game.

So, for my games I like to play things fast a loose, much like the BRP rules themselves. Instead of miniatures I use Fiery Dragon counters, specifically their "Eldritch and Occult Investigators" Counter Pack. It was published back in 2003, but it's still available from several gaming stores online. The counters look great and are the perfect size (1" squares) for the second part of the equation, which is the battle mat. The mat I use is a Chessex hexed battle mat I picked up very cheaply (accidental pilfered) several years ago at a local convention. The hexes allow for players to very simply count their movement; one hex, which we've decided is about a yard, for each point of MOV a person or beastie has.

While I've listed the pros that using minis in my campaign, there have been some cons. Foremost is the time it takes away from RPing. Often times I don't have maps pre-drawn, which takes some maneuvering between players to draw the situation. It also takes a few seconds to get everyones chits out and on the map, figure out where they are in the scene, etc. While this may only take a minuet or two, it could really kill a moment of surprise. When a group of NPCs draw guns and start firing it's shocking, but not so shocking when your Keeper then takes a minuet to draw the warehouse, bust out the Cultist counters, get everyones DEX rankings, and then continue the scene.

In the end I think I've reached a good balance in my campaign. The miniatures have certainly helped more than they've hindered, and the players have never spend more than a few minuets each session focused on the table when they should be focused on the Role Playing.

A New Horror

Well, it's finally happened. After two years of bowing and scraping, I've finally gotten together a group to play through a Call of Cthulhu campaign!

Of course, some Mi-Go brain surgeons stepped in and lent me a hand "correcting" some of the more resistant players, but we do what we must...

So what does this mean for the poor, neglected BLOG? Well, for starters, I'll have something to BLOG about. Starting this weekend, and with random updates along the way, I'll be bringing you updates on the campaign, character profiles, pictures of the group in play, reviews on source books and gaming material, plus anything else that deems itself Lovecraftian enough to catch my attention.