2013 - What Games Did I Run?

Yet another great year of games is about to end, this one went by quicker than the last! My last post talked about the games that I was a player in, this time I'm looking back at the games I ran.

Call of Cthulhu - This was classic 1920's Cthulhu set in New York City. It featured elements of the scenario "Lurker in the Crypt", and I finished the story of the Bishop family,a legacy started way back in the scenario called "The Condemned". I also put in some weird travels through time and space to Mars, which finished off the sanity of one character in particular. A wild way to wrap up the story.

Delta Green - A five part campaign which had some of my very best sessions. The group was fantastic and really embraced the paranoia, chaos and overall downward spiral of the setting. I used one published scenario, "Convergence", to kick things off. The rest was my own material. Most of it was single room mysteries, the focus was firmly on plot twists. At the end of it most of the group casualties were inflicted by the players on each other.

My Life With Master - Still one of my favorite games, I ran this twice. The first was a one-shot, the second time I did a two-parter. I actually prefer the one-shot format for this game. Although it does rush things, the game flows and the threads all come together. This game has themes that everyone understands at a very deep level. The buzz for me is seeing what the players come up with in the darkest of situations. They never fail to surprise me.

Paranoia - Yes, the old classic. I ran this recently and it was great fun.The group composition is really important in this game and we had a good one. Some of them also played "Master", and these games certainly have things in common. It also stirred up nostalgia on the day, with people coming over to see what we were playing. I'm surprised this doesn't get run more often, it's definitely a much loved game.

Trail of Cthulhu - This was a short campaign in the "Bookhounds of London" setting. I enjoyed the system in many ways, though felt it was too easy for the players, especially compared to "Delta Green". It was also fun to have some new players at the table. Overall this one had some good moments though we burned through all of the story threads very quickly indeed. I don't think I had as good a storyline in this one compared to "Delta".

The ones that got away:
Unknown Armies - I do love this system and I had a big group. Too big. We just about finished character creation and I just wasn't "feeling it". We had no concept for the campaign and I could tell that none of us really understood it. I just knew at that point that this one was going to die quickly, so I pulled the plug.

Fiasco - I missed this because of stuff at home on the day...the game went ahead though and was a real blast.

Cthulhu - From "Call of" to "Trail of"

I'm two sessions into my "Bookhounds of London" campaign using the "Trail of Cthulhu" system. Prior to that I'd been running games for almost two years using "Call of Cthulhu",so I've been reflecting on the differences between the two games and ideas for the future.

First of all, I never stayed close to the actual game system when I ran "Call of Cthulhu" or "Delta Green". There were very few rolls of the dice, typically only for combat moves or sanity checks. If the college professor in the group had a solid background in history (40% or more) I wouldn't ask for a roll. "Trail of Cthulhu",as a system, is a perfect fit in that regard. No skill rolls are required if you have a particular knowledge, the rolls are for general abilities like fleeing or scuffling.

Secondly,I am more forgiving than most Cthulhu GMs in terms of survival rates. You don't see "Total Party Kills" in my games, and while a good portion of the group won't survive the whole campaign, they will typically make it to the last session. "Trail of Cthulhu" again is a better fit, the group don't feel the burn of injuries and sanity loss until much deeper into the game.

Speaking of sanity, the slow burn rate also means that I've yet to see the in-game effects of mental instability in "Trail" unlike "Call", so I can't really compare the two at this stage. I do think that this makes "Trail" a good choice for an epic campaign like "Masks of Nyarlathotep", where party casualties are commonplace and can make it harder to keep ongoing threads.

"Masks" is on my list of things to run next year, adapted to "Trail of Cthulhu". I'm also thinking of running adaptations of some of the "Call of Cthulhu" scenarios that I've ran over the years. Some have already been done and can be found on the Pelgrane Press website. I haven't seen one for "The Condemned" or "The Sanatorium", both strong contenders for reruns, but I do have adaptations of "Tell Me,Have You Seen The Yellow Sign?", "The Cracked and Crooked Manse","Malice Everlasting" and "Edge of Darkness". All of those games have stayed in my mind and in different ways influenced the games I ran afterwards. I may weave them into "Masks" or have them stitched together as their own mini-campaign. It very much depends on who plays..I don't want the same players to have played these before, so "Malice" and "Yellow Sign" would be the best ones to do.

Has anyone else tried both systems or conversions from one to the other? Let me know!

Trail of Cthulhu - The Campaign Begins!

This weekend I kicked off my latest campaign. It's in the "Bookhounds of London" setting for "Trail of Cthulhu". This campaign takes place in London, 1935.

The session lasted roughly four hours and the first two and a half were spent on setting things up. First was character creation, something we didn't rush, especially with most of the group being totally new to this system. We have a great cast of characters...the Bookseller (owner of the bookshop and party leader), the Book Scout (dodgy acquirer of books), the Catalogue Agent (think of Johnny Depp in "The Ninth Gate"), the Occultist (enough said), the Antiquarian (museum contact and part-time employee), the Forger (again,enough said) and a Private Investigator (unusually the one with morals).

Next we created the Bookshop itself. This was a collaborative exercise for us all,with the Bookseller having final say on some decisions. We came up with a name ("Marlowe & Sons"), physical description of the store, its location (Soho), main lines of business, clientele and rivals. This was great fun and gave me,as a gamesmaster, lots of hooks and material to work into the sessions I already have outlined. It was also a pleasure to see how everyone contributed with great ideas. It's a very effective way to get the players invested in the setting itself, as they've created so much of it. This is definitely an exercise I'll embrace in future campaigns.

I then turned over the names of the investigation stories that I'd created loose frameworks for, along with a one-line intro. The group could choose which one to start with,and the order in which the others will be played.Again, a bit of a gimmick, but it gives the group some ownership and helps me plan things out and get a sense in advance of how the sessions may flow. They were offered "Dust to Dust","The Poe Ritual","Lot 666","When The Wind Blows" and "The Seance". They went for the Poe story which was a really good choice for a starter.

We managed to get a solid hour or so of gaming in so they could get a feel for their characters and I'd say we got halfway through "The Poe Ritual". I really enjoyed the system,setting and group dynamic. That being said, as usual, the system was really there as a backup for the story, something that I prefer and encourage. I like the feel of "Trail of Cthulhu" and look forward to using it in other settings. If you like Cthulhu games with more emphasis on the investigation and storyline side of things, do give it a try.

Trail Of Cthulhu - Preparing a New Campaign

This weekend will be the beginning of a new campaign that I've written, using the "Trail of Cthulhu" system. I'm excited about this as it's the first time I'll have run "Trail" with my usual group, I have some new faces at the table, and the setting is also new.

This campaign will be in the "Bookhounds of London" setting, in the 1930's. I'm using what has now become my standard approach for campaigns. I run six sessions, once a month. The first is all about character creation and setting things up. The following five sessions are actual investigations, presented as standalone stories that have an overall story arc. This keeps the game open and accessible for people who join later on, or for players who miss a game here and there. Sometimes I get the first story going in session one, depending on how long character creation takes. I think the eagerness to play can mean rushing through this process,and it's something I want to change this time. I will also encourage the group to create a few extra characters which I'll have as NPCs, available to become player characters for newcomers or replacements to existing characters.

The stories I've prepared are loose threads. I have things like twists and the big reveal already in place, but the rest of the structure is very open so the players can take the story where they want it to go. I will also be trying a gimmick of allowing the players to choose which threads to follow, in such a way that they will be deciding the order in which the stories are played. I'm looking forward to seeing how this unfolds and how the story order will impact on the flow of the campaign.

Another aspect that's new this time is that I have certain situations or setpieces that I want to put in to really make each story a different experience, rather than just a "monster of the week" approach. I've done this a little with "Delta Green" and it's very rewarding to see the players really think through a situation with unique challenges.

Each story will feature a book. It may be a Mythos tome, or something less sinister. The goal in one story might be the aquisition of the book, in another it could be to sell one. It could even be a case of keeping a book out of the hands of a rival. Again,these are all angles I'm looking to explore.

I'll be posted summaries of the sessions in the coming months. I hope they play out well and they give you some ideas to throw into your own campaign, if you enjoy the same psychological horror that I do!

Trail of Cthulhu - "Bookhounds of London"

Every so often you find a roleplaying game or setting that just gets you as a player or gamesmaster. It fits you like a glove in terms of the atmosphere,theme or mechanics. I've experienced that over the years with games like "Call of Cthulhu", "Kult" and "My Life With Master". I also felt it when I ran games in the "Ravenloft" setting for AD&D 2E.

Now I've found another in Pelgrane Press "Bookhounds of London", a campaign setting for "Trail of Cthulhu" written by Kenneth Hite. The setting is London in the 1930's. The players are somehow connected with a bookstore that deals in occult books, and this serves as a backdrop for drawing them into deeper mysteries and a lot of trouble. The 1930's brings the pressures,and opportunities, of Depression era economics. There are plenty of dilettantes who have fallen on hard times and have very rare and dangerous books to sell, along with an audience of buyers who may well be cultists or satanists.

There are new options for character occupations too. A player could be the bookstore keeper who owns or manages the store, the character who is effectively the party leader. There's the book scout, the "street" character who trawls through junk sales to find that special bargain,by fair means or foul. Then we have the catalogue agent (think of Johnny Depp in "The Ninth Gate"), the private investigator who represents a specific dealer. Of course, given the pressures of supply and demand, we also have the forger.

The group create the bookshop together at the start of the campaign and can invest some of their points into the shop itself, to provide it with the chance of having just the right book when they need it. This alone would provide plenty of story hooks. When you add in the new occupations, there is tremendous potential for character-driven storylines.

The background material on London is superb, lots of maps from the era are included and guidelines for evoking London. There are also three "types" of London suggested, and I'm already struggling to choose one, so I'll let the group decide. There is "Sordid" London, which is along the lines of "From Hell". "Arabesque" London is the labyrinthine world that Sherlock Holmes knows well. "Technicolor" London is more akin to the world of Dennis Wheatley and Hammer horror, full of vivid colors and wealthy satanists.

This will be my first run of "Trail of Cthulhu" as well, though some colleagues tell me that me my games are already closer to it in spirit than "Call of Cthulhu". This starts in August, so do look for gameplay reviews and summaries later this year.