Cthulhu .... any advice on how to run it?

[Kestrel]

Play by candlelight and finish every description with "muwahahahaha!"

Whenever the players make a decision to do something, temple your fingers and say creepily, "Excellent"

Chuckle whenever they buy weapons.

When describing sounds, especially loud bangs, slam your hand on the table quickly. Its best if its totally unexpected.

Brush up your gore descriptions, believe me, you will need them.

Always work to seperate the players. Talk to them in seperate rooms if they are dumb enough to actually seperate. Always ask them to bring thier character and dice in the other room.

Vivid descriptions.

 

[Eben]

Suggest stuff to your players: let their imaginations run wild. Players can scare each other (or even themselves) more than most GM's can.

 

[Angelsboi]

*nods* all of this is really great. Now what do i do if its PBP (Play by Post)?

 

[The Crimster]

I feel I must make my voice known here. =)

I'm currently running a d20 Call of Cthulhu PBP game on the In-Character board (link below). Come by, take a look. It's just in the beginning stages, however. Perhaps you may find some ideas there!

 

[Isida KepTukari]

Ak! Crimster beat me to the punch! But yes, come check it out. Dare I suggest that there might be room for two Call of Cthulhu games on the In Character board? Or would all time and space collapse and the Great Old Ones come to devour our souls? You can only try...

 

[Angelsboi]

good so far. But what about 1920s and not modern day

 

[Isida KepTukari]

I'm sure you'll have takers.

 

[thatdarncat]

When my parents take off in May for two weeks, I'm planning on having a week long LAN party with a bunch of my friends.

Can anyone suggest a good modern day module?

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

And as Epametheus said: "The Dunwich horror" I think this is one of his best stories set in "Lovecraft-country"

Actually, some scholars (see Robert M. Price's introduction to The Dunwich Cycle - a Dunwich anthology with stories by HPL and others.) believe that "The Dunwich Horror" is one of the least-typical Cthulhu mythos stories by HPL.

Mainly because the typical Lovecraftian notion that "humans are insignificant specks who can't change anything and none of their efforts matter" isn't there.

It's stilll a great story, and since the heroes may actually be successful, may be a better model for a CoC game than other HPL stories.

Other great HPL stories:

"Pickman's Model"
"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"

For $10, you can order a
CD with all of HPL's work on it. I think the voice is computer synthesized, so listen to a clip before you buy.

 

[Kestrel]

The Lurker at the Threshold, a combination effort with Lovecraft and Derleth (I honestly don't know who did the most writing on it) is a really good story. Mankind manages to "win" in that one too.