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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Byrons_Ghost" data-source="post: 2000761" data-attributes="member: 7396">Well, the investigative questions have been mostly covered, so I thought I'd throw in on this, which can be tough. There's a couple of different options. The metagame option is to just work out with the players that they have the sort of characters that would do this sort of thing, and that no one wants to worry too much about the why's of things. This usually works pretty well with players used to horror gaming (CoC definately isn't the only horror game out there with motivational problems), or if the players are the type of good sports who will go along with the campaign premise because it means they get to play.Of course, even if the players are like this, there's no reason not give them an in-game reason, which is option #2. In this case, you want a campaign framework just like in any other game- it could be a central villain, a central mystery, a conspiracy to halt, whatever. The Mythos actually gives you a pretty good way to tie things together, because if you want to play it "pure", then the Mythos is behind all supernatural events in one degree or another. Whereas PCs in a fantasy game might stop orcish incursions only to discover that the orcs weren't actually connected to the Dark Lord, in CoC anything odd is potentially the result of Mythos activity. So I guess what I'm saying here is that you need less in the way of hooks than you might in other games.The most popular CoC framework out there, Delta Green, essentially began as a means of providing a framework for characters to have a reason to investigate the Mythos, and to continue to do so (as well as a good means of bringing in replacement PCs). The fact that DG accomplishes these metagame goals while providing a phenomenal setting and world is a large part of it's success.Of course, if you don't have the DG books, you're going to have trouble finding them. Here's a couple of other ideas I've considered as a campaign framework:1. The Real Mythos- the characters are Lovecraftian fans and scholars, academics, horror buffs, etc. After discovering that some of the things HPL hinted at were true, they begin investigating the events of the stories and trying to match them to what "really" happened, as well as events in the author's life. There is some sort of time limit on this- a reading of a story hints that the end of the world is near, for example. But because of the means in which they've gotten together (ie the shared supernatural experiences in the first session or two), and the outlandishness of the situation (horror writer's creations turn out to be real, and only the fanboys can save the world? Not going to be a popular theory with authorities...), the PCs are left on their own to solve things.2. Magical Self Preservation- The first investigation is a typical one- searching for a missing person, examining a haunted house, etc. During the course of the investigation, the PCs are hit with some sort of curse that will destroy them under the proper circumstances (after a set amount of time, if they leave a certain geographical area, etc). The PCs would already have motivation to stick together and, being otherwise unfamilar with the supernatural, will have to go out and investigate strange events in the hopes of learning enough to discover how to reverse the condition.Again, both of these can seem like railroading if the player's aren't willing to go along with the basic premise.It might help to track down some Chaosium modules for the BRP game, if not to run than at least to see how they're generally organized. Many of the older books are now PDFs on DriveThruRPG, if you want a cheap & quick way to get some inspiration. There's also a ton of free adventures on the chaosium site, and probably some other sources on the web as well.Finally, for running any horror game in general, there's a book by Kenneth Hite called "Nightmares of Mine" that lays out pretty much everything you need to know. Much of the material also was used by the author when he was writing GURPS Horror 3rd ed, if that's more your speed.</blockquote>

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