Running Call of Cthulhu For The First Time

[Janx]

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.

this partly sounds like a home-brewing balance problem.

The GM changed from the standard scenario of lightly armed civilians to an armed platoon of soliders, without really balance testing the combat encounter. Since the first few shots proved the monster was not immune to bullets, the soldiers had no reason to get scared and run. At that point, it became a pure military combat encouter.

I'm not even sure where the GM could have gone from there IF the monster was platoon-proof. Say [MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION] ran, and comes back to see his platoon's remains (and say the other PCs did likewise). What in Cthulu's Green Snot does 5 PCs think they are going to accomplish against a platoon killing beast?

In a stereotypical horror, the monster takes out a guy or two off camera, that the PCs encounter the aftermath. There is still room for HOPE that the party can use its combined strength and brains to defeat the monster, because they don't have any evidence of its overwhelming strengh or size.

Once you see the beast wipe out a platoon firsthad, that's kind of a buzzkill.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I'm not even sure where the GM could have gone from there IF the monster was platoon-proof. Say @RangerWickett ran, and comes back to see his platoon's remains (and say the other PCs did likewise). What in Cthulu's Green Snot does 5 PCs think they are going to accomplish against a platoon killing beast?

If I was running a game that had a platoon killing beast in it, killing the beast wouldn't be the main objective of the scenario. There would be a higher goal that the PCs would want to accomplish (stopping cultists from completing an Elder God summoning ritual) and the PKB would be an obstacle (albeit an extraordinarily deadly obstacle) that the PCs would have to avoid or overcome.

 

[ProtoClone]

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.

In the games we played it was the lack of obvious dread that created more dread. It was the idea of poking our hands around under the car in hopes of finding the car keys we dropped and hoping we don't find something else first. You want the players to poke around and wonder if the next time they open a book, or a door, or "to see what that was" if it will be their last.

Lovecraft was about building the suspense and only giving you a fraction of an idea of what it is that is out there.

 

[jaygeh]

Keep it loose

I have run some CoC missions for my weekly gaming group. I find that when we focus on the investigation more, we have a lot more fun. And I always write up some general notes for myself on the passage of the adventure, with possible side tracks the guys might take. They really like trying to out think me until we build up to the main conflict. I also make up a lot of props, stuff I print out as handouts for the guys, usually with clues within the contents.

 

[WayneLigon]

Look at some of the introductory scenarios, or the adventures for bare beginners - use those to teach the game rules and to set up a different set of expectations. Death can come very quickly even from human sources, and there is little or no way of healing yourself quickly even with magic. Monsters are there to run from, not fight. Most of them are not harmed by terrestrial weaposn, anyway. Maybe even make the adventures you try the first time around the 'prequel' to the real thing. These investigators all meet horrible ends, and the next set of characters come looking for them. Kill them, kill them dead, bring them back only to kill them again. Have them make horrible discoveries, like when they open the car trunk and find it filled to the brim with their entire liquified family.

After that shock-show, however.... Now, having done that, ease off and show them there are ways to win, small ways that nevertheless mean a lot. I've had quite a few people tell me they never want to bother with CoC because people die quicker than henchmen in the Tomb of Horrors, but that does not have to be the case. Have the main fight be against the various cults, those conspiracy-laden networks of madmen who invest our society like parasites. The game becomes one of deep cat-and-mouse strikes because the one thing you can never let these people do it learn who you are. That happens, and you're all dead. They can summon monsters or use spells to rip you to pieces and you'll never see it coming. Yet, cultists are mostly mortal and vulnerable. They can be opposed, killed, and triumphed over. It provides some of that visceral joy you get from cleaning out a goblin lair when you finally, finally take down a large chunk of the network for good, then fade back into the night like you were never there in the first place.