Running Call of Cthulhu For The First Time

[MortalPlague]

I will be starting a Call of Cthulhu mini-campaign tomorrow. My group is all D&D players, most recently used to 4th Edition, though we've played 2nd and 3rd as well. We're also avid players of Arkham Horror, so we're somewhat familiar with the themes involved. I'm planning to run a 4-6 session game of CoC to see what it's all about.

I picked up the 6th Edition PDF off Chaosium's site, which includes several excellent starter adventures. I've settled on the Edge of Darkness adventure, which should give my players a good first taste of dealing with the horrors of the Mythos.

I have a few questions for those who have run the game before. First, do you have any tips? Any thoughts on running Call of Cthulhu as opposed to D&D? And secondly, the book's combat rules are a little complex and spread throughout a chapter. Is there a combat crib sheet available somewhere which lays things out in an organized fashion?

 

[Crothian]

First of all, best of luck. It is never easy jumping into a new game and system. Don't get to caught up the rules and just remember to keep the game moving along. You and the players will get things wrong so you'll need to learn from mistakes and adapt. Have fun and don't worry about screwing things up too much.

With CoC unlike D&D don't show the monsters. Hint at them, show the result of other people running into the monsters (dead or insane is always good). Smart investigators don't want to run into the monsters, that's how you become a dead investigator or worse. Show the cultists and their insanity. Establish the setting especially if you are not running it in modern times. For one game I was in set in the 1930's the GM started the game with the best selling music of that year and telling us of the latest in motion pictures. Details like that can really help set the tone and the initial mode.

Combat can be deadly so don't have much of it. The combat system is not the greatest so I always concentrate more on story and investigation. Then I have them run into some weak cultists that mostly die with a hit or two. The system can be deadly so be careful not to kill the PCs to quickly.

 

[darjr]

Just found this via google.

Never seen it before but I'd figure I'd post it here.

http://arsmysteriorum.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/8/0/2480968/call_of_cthulhu_combat_reference_sheet.pdf

 

[Spatula]

The combat system is surprisingly fiddly for a game that, in theory, is not about combat. I don't think the rulebook has a summary, but I think the important bits are:

DEX determines initiative.

Most guns can shoot 2/round, ammo willing, if you have the gun ready to fire at the start of the round. If you don't have a gun, I don't think you can act during the first shooting phase.

If you roll skill/5 or less, you do double damage (an impale).

If you're practically on top of your target and have a gun, that's point-blank range and you get some really good benefits for that.

If you lose more than X% (half? I forget) of your remaining hit points after getting hit, you have to roll less than CON x 5 or pass out.

You're dead past -2 hit points.

First Aid/Medicine can restore 1d3 hit points from each hit, once (not more HP than you lost, obviously). So if you take one big hit, successful first aid will restore 1d3. If you take several smaller hits, you could potentially get back 1d3 x # hits from first aid.

Shotguns are DEADLY (at least to humans) at close range.

 

[MortalPlague]

Good advice, thanks. Darjr, that sheet is exactly what I had in mind; all the combat rules on two concise pages. Well, dense pages. But I digress.

Can't wait to get at it tomorrow. I'm tracking down some mood music and reference photos. This should be fun.

 

[ProtoClone]

The key to a good game is atmosphere. The people over at yog-sothoth.com are great for advice.
Some advice for you and your players:
If you have a gun, remember to save a bullet for yourself.
Have the players create several investigators and have them on stand-by for when one dies the next one jumps right in, with a reasonable story.
Be prepared for every possible thing your players can do; don't be surprised when they don't do any of them.
Handouts are your friend.
Don't worry if they spend lots of time, maybe even a session, going over notes and clues, that's part of the game too.

There is a lot that goes in to running a game for a Keeper. So make time to prepare notes and handouts for the players. Also be prepared that even though you felt like all options were laid out for them, they will find some way to come up with a new one.

Remind them, and yourself, it is OK they died...that's what can happen.

Sorry if my post seemed confusing at first, I copy & pasted it from a similar topic I responded to on a different message board.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I hope it has gone well, as I guess you've had your first session by now!

The one additional bit of advice I'd give is to make sure that the players have set their expectations of CoC adventures appropriately - a game of investigation, fear, insanity and so forth is quite different from a standard D&D game of kick in the door, heroism and winning!

I'm sure that you've already done this and the players are up for it, but I thought it was worth adding into the conversation

 

[frankthedm]

If the game hasn't changed too much from CoC 5th edition, I'd recommend borrowing the automatic fire rules from the Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader & Deathwatch games.

You still get the normal bonus to hit when firing fully automatic, but on a hit, one bullet hits home. For each 10% the shooter passes the test by, another bullet hits home, up to the number fired. If you hit by 10% you get two hits, hit by 20% you get 3 bullets, hit by 60%, seven bullets hit home.

 

[RangerWickett]

I played in a Cthulhu one-shot this past weekend that kind of sucked. My advice, focus on the horror.

We did a Vietnam War thing where we were too heavily armed, and never really threatened. I wanted to go running off into the jungle in a panic, ditching my gear so I could run faster, only to find my way back hours later and discover the rest of my company half-devoured. But instead we blew the monsters away.

In horror, you need bad things to happen early, to set the precedent that terrible things can happen later. This establishes a sense of dread.

Call of Cthulhu has great sanity rules. Use them. If no one goes insane during the course of your mini-campaign, you're either using the wrong system, or not throwing enough horrible things at them.

Kill people, or at least make it obvious that their lives are in peril.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I played in a Cthulhu one-shot this past weekend that kind of sucked. My advice, focus on the horror.

We did a Vietnam War thing where we were too heavily armed, and never really threatened. I wanted to go running off into the jungle in a panic, ditching my gear so I could run faster, only to find my way back hours later and discover the rest of my company half-devoured. But instead we blew the monsters away.

In horror, you need bad things to happen early, to set the precedent that terrible things can happen later. This establishes a sense of dread.

Call of Cthulhu has great sanity rules. Use them. If no one goes insane during the course of your mini-campaign, you're either using the wrong system, or not throwing enough horrible things at them.

Kill people, or at least make it obvious that their lives are in peril.

All of this. (I would have XPed you if I could have.) I'm sure it's primarily the style of CoC that I was introduced to but it wouldn't be a satisfying experience if people didn't go insane, die, and be completely out matched and out of their element.

As a GM one thing that I found helpful was to print out the character sheet, jot the rolls and equations used for character creation on the sheet ("3d6" next to Str, "2d6+6 next to Size, etc.), and photocopy those for my players. Having all of that information on the sheet made character creation go very quickly and let the players fill out this sheets at their own pace.