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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7895819" data-attributes="member: 6801286">When I ran my Call of Cthulhu campaign, I followed this structure:1. The campaign is a small sandbox, taking place in one city, with a strong focus on investigation and not on combat. Players are provided with black envelopes from which they pick a secret, which they must try to keep. This secret will come into the plot eventually.2. The campaign starts with a brief introductory sequence that allows the players to meet up and establish their characters. No horror elements take place during the intro, to ground the story and provide contrast later on. This is where the players get to describe their characters for the first time.3. I then establish an initial spooky mystery with plenty of plothooks. The players are free to chase down any of the clues, and they can even split the party if they want, since it is a small setting and they are never far apart. All clues eventually point in the same direction, and the success of the investigation is not dependent on following up on any single clue. There are backup clues to the backup clues.4. As the players progress in their investigation, the stakes are raised. The players are placed in a life threatening situation, and now their lives depends on the success of their investigation. Villains are revealed and start taking notice of the players. A timeline of events starts kicking in, allowing the plot to progress regardless of how well the players are doing. From now on, every day something will happen that either endangers the players or provides further clues. The plot becomes like a ticking timebomb.5. There is a plot twist or some grand revelation as the players unravel the mystery, or they fail to solve the mystery and our narrative timebomb goes off. Failure is always a possibility, and there's an entire scenario ready in case they fail. There might be a fight at the end, or the players may have to run for their lives.</blockquote>

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