Investigators will face a wide variety of threats throughout the adventures, and, per the campaign book, cultists will frequently attempt kidnappings to allow their superiors to question meddlers before sacrifice or summary execution. While kidnappings can serve to forestall death and increase the drama, they can disrupt player agency and engagement. Removing an Investigator from the game almost guarantees player dissatisfaction, and trying to concurrently run events for the kidnapped and the rescuers during a session can be a real nuisance for everyone. We offer three potential methods to smooth these challenges and create interesting scenarios for your players.  To the Rescue: The first option removes the kidnapped player from active gameplay and operates under

Read on…Kidnapped Investigators in Call of Cthulhu

Roleplaying requires constant improvisation by both players and Keepers. The MoN campaign materials provide us with a wealth of material to draw from with many detailed characters and location descriptions, but sometimes we find ourselves portraying bit players or describing unexpected locales.  We frequently discover our groups getting interested in something that may not be plot-relevant or fleshed out. Rather than wave off their interest or block them, we can instead use a whammy (or bang) to institute a pause by interrupting the player’s pursuit of that lead allowing the Keeper inter-session time to engineer campaign links and flesh out a rewarding encounter. Of course, you can skip all that and just improvise, but let

Read on…The Pause

We return to our Mythos Corruption framework, which provides an alternative to the classic Call of Cthulhu Sanity mechanic allowing the Keeper and players to move away from Insanity and mental health associations used in the traditional ruleset. We have previously discussed Vulnerability to address Mundane Horror and optional rules to help tailor Corruption to your game. Here we offer alternative tables for Cosmic Horror (Bouts of Madness) and Unsettled Reality (Indefinite Reality) for completeness sake. While the effects of Mythos Corruption may appear outwardly as Insanity, they represent profound alterations of the Investigator’s reality.  Rather than purely punitive events, some Psychic Detonations may have both negative and positive features, which may be exploited by both

Read on…Mythos Corruption – Random Cosmic Horror Effect Tables

Once you have an overview of the entirety of the main campaign, either by a full read-through or a preliminary first-pass, you can begin prepping your first chapter. If you’re an experienced Keeper/GM and have a preferred prep style feel free to disregard all the suggestions here and stick to the approach that works for you. If you feel daunted by the information contained in each chapter, try some of these suggestions. First, we’ll re-read all the introductory chapter information, including the connection to the main campaign, Carlyle Expedition, Jackson Elias, as well as the chapter’s feature cult. If you wish, you can breeze past the information about the NPC and plan to return to

Read on…Chapter Prepping