TTRPG noob here. Just bought this to play with the boys. What are we in for
the second worst edition of coc
I don't know the starter set, but in general CoC is a bit prep heavy. Read it through and be ready for them to skip a lot of what you wanted to have. The fun comes from the unexpected events during game so let them play, but be ready to cajole them a bit if they start threading water not knowing what to do because being stuck kills the mood.
>>96523325I've got a bit of time before I introduce them. The nice thing is it comes with a solo adventure that I can run and get familiar with the systems in a practical wayOther than reading over the scenario multiple times, what are some good DM/keeper tips to make sure I'm prepared for whatever these retards throw at me?
>>96523839Read about the Three Clue Rule at the Alexandrian. Some CoC adventures are terrible about missed clues locking the whole investigation down.
>>96523839Drill the following into your players:>CoC is not a fucking FPS. Attempting to engage eldritch horrors in combat is almost invariably fatal. Forget everything you know from vidya and learn to TTRPG.
>>96523839you'll probably suck because it's the first time you try, just focus on being in the moment. Don't read aloud too much, decide as much as possible on the go to keep the ball ralling even if your idea isn't as cool as the thing you half remember reading. Incorporate in descriptions and stuff the mechanics just in case they don't remember them, because they won't, don't try to teach them everything at the start or it'll feel like a test.
>>96523276Why did you blindly buy a game without finding out anything about it beforehand?
>>96524076>>96524147>>96524148All good advice, thank you. Especially the three clues>>96524355The corn harvest was good this year and I've accumulated more wealth than I know what to do with
>>96524076Do this, then ignore the three clue rule.If you design an intricate story and adventure based around following a specific set of clues/beats that hinge on player-character successes for each and every single one, you will be guaranteed to be stuck, no exceptions.Instead, throw out clues altogether and do what the designers originally intended: design the adventure to be based largely around a scenario where your players know what the problem is off-the-bat, and they are put into the scenario to use their tools (items and skills and character professions) to figure out what to do themselves.Call of Cthulhu isn't fucking based on Sherlock Holmes. It's based off H.P. Lovecraft, a series of stories where characters are thrust into worlds where they use their knowledge to deduce what they encounter and find the best way out of their current situations.What you really need to do is to:A) Come up with specific story beats that happen no matter what B) Come up with "random encounter" beats, that could optionally happen based on player routes, and shift their approachC) Encourage players to use resources like libraries, university labs, police files, and general exploration per their own accord in order to find what they needThe game CoC should be run on a sort of time-table approach where there is a background ticking clock aspect. You want the players to gather their resources before the next story beat, which then dictates how informed/ready they are, and the approach they will take before the next story beat.Do the players defeat the big bad, but fail to uncover the cult? Do they uncover the cult, but fail to stop the big bad? Do they do neither and simply save whoever they can and get out before they all die? These are the types of endings you should be facing, not "THE MYSTERY WAS THE SHATTERED LAMP OF DELO BOCA VISTA ALL ALONG!" bullshit. That is not Call of Cthulhu.
>>96526016You're being weirdly reductive on what constitutes a mystery. Mystery doesn't necessarily mean The Maltese Falcon, and clue in a game sense just means a piece of information that moves the players forward. The ticking clock idea is a good one, but the bulk of your post is pedantic nonsense.
>>96526016>Instead, throw out clues altogether and do what the designers originally intended: design the adventure to be based largely around a scenario where your players know what the problem is off-the-bat, and they are put into the scenario to use their tools (items and skills and character professions) to figure out what to do themselves.The traditional default CoC-scenario (the Haunting) is about exploring a house with an unknown threat and being encouraged to do some investigative sleuthing before tackling the house itself to uncover the mystery. The players shouldn't know what the mystery is of the bat because the horror should be unknown and come as a surprise.
A boring and shitty time because 99% of people neither know nor care about the cthulu mythos. Play something with sex instead, get their cocks hard.
>>96526016>Chakotay?Sounds great!
>>96523276You're basically putting on a performance with your friends. I mean, you kinda know what you're getting into and aren't likely to be scared. Cosmic horror is meant to evoke a sort of existential crisis where you contemplate how insignificant you are but modern people are usually too jaded for that to bother them. But interesting stuff will happen(RPing going insane etc). Going into ultra-caution mode does ruin things so tell the players to experiment and do what seems fun. A lot of adventures use pre-gens. Some people will chafe at this at first but it's kinda fun to play a one-off game and play a 60 year old doctor or something you probably wouldn't consider for a long campaign. There's a really cool culture around the modules. If you Google there are blogs with suggestions on how to improve them and better versions of the handouts and maps. Again, it's a fun performance so if you have the free time and inclined you can look up ways to make paper look aged, 3-D a statuette they recover from a cult, etc. It's fine if your players aren't Lovecraft scholars. If anything it's better if they can't name the creatures they encounter. Winning usually involves finding an un-summon ritual, collapsing the game with TNT, etc.
>>96526739>>96527319You're missing what I said, or I didn't write it clearly enough; when I say "get rid of clues altogether", I mean planning the session like a murder mystery where you're out to "get the guy" and be the "hero". Obviously your characters still use their skills to piece together bits of information, like I literally said in my post where they use resources like libraries, but it hinges less on them finding something like "the murder weapon" or "the photograph", or other bullshit that completely locks down the investigation/scenario. The adventure should be something that unfolds regardless of their ability to continue, and the only thing investigating does is open up options for them to resolve the matter with.I like to give a basic run-down of the after-math of my CoC sessions to show how effective the characters were, what they managed to uncover, and the results of their overall efforts. "Throwing out clues altogether" in the sense of throwing out the players finding information in general is not what I meant, and I'll take that criticism, but in general, what I meant is that hinging your adventure purely on clues is what is nonsense.
>>96528646You shouldn't hinge your entire scenario on clues *that kind be missed.* Again, a clue is just a unit of information that leads to players to further the scenario.
>>96528788I'm referring to clues in the context that the average player refers to them, IE, specific items they need in order to progress.Most experienced CoC players know that, but most average players experience with "clues" is the literal boardgame Clue.
There doesn't seem to be a general TRPG thread up, so... What's a good one for oneshots with about 5 people? I have never GMd in my life.
>>96531808None really, if its your first time it's gonna be ass, so just wing it and see what happens.
>>96531347It sounds like you've played mostly with dunderheads, this has literally never been a problem for me and I've never heard of other people have an issue with it.
nah you just play with retards
>>96523276>>96525619I'd suggest even going beyond three clues. Really you just want to ensure that there's plenty of incidental information and extra ways to discover basically anything. Don't think of clues as keys to a lock, they're more like bits of a torn photograph. The players don't need all the pieces in order to guess what a photo is of, but having more pieces makes it easier.
>>96523839GM tip:CoC is not D&D. By which I mean, the investigators will not know what they're encountering unless they have a lot of arcane knowledge (likely enough to have sent them insane). So where in D&D you might say "...as you step into the room you see a Beholder!" and the players (and PCs) know what this is, don't start attaching names to creatures or related artifacts (Hounds of Tindalos, Mi-Go brain cylinders, Great Race of Yith*, etc). Just describe what their senses tell them: "A black hound the size of a lion, slaver dripping from its jaws. As it moves, it seems to flicker as though it occupies space in a way you can't comprehend. A long, low growl rumbles from somewhere deep inside." (This is me pulling things out of my ass, as it's been a long time since I read/played any CoC, so I don't know exactly what a Hound of Tindalos looks like.)* - yes, I said Yith. Great way to weed out any players with furry tendencies is to see who makes a joke about that. Seriously, there was this one guy whose PC found the name on a fragment of charred paper and spent the rest of the campaign breaking immersion by calling them the Great Race of Yiff. And he probably would've yiffed them, too, the perv.Oh, as for investigation: the investigators will never figure out all of the details - they can piece together real-world events (people who know each other, cult meetings, that an item was stolen, that a specific book is in the Miskatonic U library, that these chalk sigils are the sign of cultist activity), but there are no Scooby-Doo endings. The forces of the mythos are ineffable, and knowledge of creatures or magic will inflict sanity loss. So the evidence they find is generally grounded in the real world, with the exception of knowing that the supernatural exists and picking up small amounts of knowledge anecdotally. Even if they did find a Mi-Go brain cylinder, what would it mean to a 1920s American?
>>96531808Pick up the starter, run the solo scenario and then play through the other scenarios it provides with a group.
>>96523276that said, if you just stick to the starter set you can avoid some of the dumbshit changes they injected into 7e as the box has a cut down version of the slop infested corebooks. and the box usually goes on sale in big box stores to make shelf space for shit that actually moves.
>>96537687>you can avoid some of the dumbshit changes they injected into 7eSuch as?
>>96532992Not a furry at all, but the idea of a troupe of pseudo-Victorian gumshoes with pistols looking for "The Great Race of Yiff" is absolutely hysterical.
>>96523276How does the current version of BRP stack up against the good old Gold Book?
>>96538695Doesn’t feel all too out of place either if we consider the horror of man mixing with the deep ones in Shadow over Insmouth and man mixing with the great race of Yiff.
>>96523276first time games, the haunting is never a bad choice and helps acclimate you to how games are runalso helps instill some good DM habits for after you finish running it>if players are spending too much time in one place trying to spam library use checks, then your client will call the players and tell them to stop wasting time and money >most places have one person to talk to, so people with social skills have a chance to work>mr corbitt is tough enough that characters who specialized in combat will be vindicated for owning a shotgun, but balanced by dominate person being able to turn your players guns against each other, so being well armed can be a liability>small chance to get one-shot by a bed, if nothing else, your players will learn to stay on their toes>players are signposted early on to visit the haunted house last only after they find where his tomb is located
>>96523276Without a doubt, one of the best games for new GMs and players.>>96531808>What's a good one for oneshots with about 5 people? I have never GMd in my life.Edge of Darkness is one of my favourites, the final ritual is a great climax.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OiP8yvK59k
>>96539164Not as good, less content.
