Potential GMing Delima: CoC or MnM 3e?

[Umbran]

So I don't actually have players set in stone for either game.

Gotcha - without set players, I'd probably go with Mutants and Masterminds, then. Pretty much everyone coming to the store will know enough about the Supers genre to be able to jump in with little difficulty.

 

[Walking Dad]

Do you know "Anopheles"? It could be adapted to M&M.

 

[Jared Rascher]

Gotcha - without set players, I'd probably go with Mutants and Masterminds, then. Pretty much everyone coming to the store will know enough about the Supers genre to be able to jump in with little difficulty.

You know, while I'd love to have a shot at really pulling off a really creepy, out of the park CoC campaign after all these years of hearing about the game, there are very few gamers that don't have some concept of what a campaign is about when you mention, for example "Justice League."

 

[Jared Rascher]

I think Frank has it right; Call of Cthulhu depends heavily on mood, and it can be a lot tougher to get that feel if you're playing in a gaming store. MnM, on the other hand, has a couple of advantages - it generates business for the store, it's fun for people to briefly watch, and it's equally great for one-shots.

The last CoC game that was run in the store went over really well, but when I think about it, that game also ran on Sunday night, which is a quieter night at the store, without tons of Magic players looking to play pick up games and searching through singles, for example.

If I run this on Tuesdays, it will likely be a lot busier and a bit more distracting in the store.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

You know, while I'd love to have a shot at really pulling off a really creepy, out of the park CoC campaign after all these years of hearing about the game, there are very few gamers that don't have some concept of what a campaign is about when you mention, for example "Justice League."

See? That's exactly why you SHOULD run CoC! Everyone knows what to expect in a "Justice League" game but if you run a CoC game you'll be expanding their horizons!

(Deep down I agree, it's probably better to run a MnM game since you can get everyone on the page so quickly and easily. But man do I love me some Cthulhu!!)

 

[Jared Rascher]

See? That's exactly why you SHOULD run CoC! Everyone knows what to expect in a "Justice League" game but if you run a CoC game you'll be expanding their horizons!

Heh, yeah, right up until they realize that its not that strange to go completely insane or get killed . . . "I thought that was suppose to happen to NPCs!"

I was thinking about this. Even if people are "Marvel" people or even have never read comics, they kind of get comic book campaigns. "Horror" is a very broad concept, and doesn't always give a good clue to Lovecraft style horror.

I really would love to run a CoC game, but I'm pretty settled on the MnM game at this point.

Thanks everyone for the input!

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

In my experience CoC is very deadly and has a high character turnover rate. This makes it great for one-shot or episodic sessions.

My group's played several campaigns of Call of Cthulhu, it's easily possible to play longer games.