Call of Cthulhu: Sandbox

[GothmogIV]

Hello, generally pleasant people on the Internet. I am a long time player of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. Like, a really long time (since 1983!) I have run more than 100 sessions (not sure how many, to be honest) and I've always run a published scenario, or connected a group of published scenarios together with things that I've added. In recent years, I have become enamoured of a more sandboxy style of play in the fantasy games that I run (5e, Castles&Crusades, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Dragonbane).

Has anyone ever done a CoC sandbox? I'd love some advice and to hear some experiences.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't, but I feel like the big city setting books they're publishing now are intended for just this sort of play.

 

[GothmogIV]

I have the Arkham one, and that's going to be the setting for sure. I think I'm just going to put breadcrumb trails out and see which way they go, then prep. that. So much of CoC is investigative, and we all like handouts. Can't make those on the fly.

 

[overgeeked]

I have. It was a blast while it lasted. I had the added wrinkle of almost a West Marches set up and that’s what killed it.

I also used the Arkham book as the basis, though an older one. I cannot recommend using an investigator organization enough. It makes everything so much easier.

I ran it like any other open-world sandbox with a slightly limited setting. Most stuff happened in Arkham though they could leave and some mysteries were out of town.

As you say, a few breadcrumb trails are enough to get started. Only seed at most 3-5 mysteries at a time. More is overwhelming and confusing.

There are so many NPCs and hooks in the Arkham book you could probably run it for years. Just dig through it and mine it for ideas if nothing else.

ETA: If you're not already familiar, check out the Alexandrian blog on the three clue rule, don't prep plots, and node-based design. These are fantastic for making your own mysteries.

 

[Committed Hero]

The Armitage Files for Trail.