Which Cthulhu campaign would you recommend?

[Boregar]

I have a hankering to try and persuade my group to put D&D aside for a few weeks and play Call of Cthulhu instead. I've got three published campaigns that I could use, and I'd appreciate any suggestions and/or opinions on which one I should go for.

The choices are At the Mountains of Madness,Horror on the Orient Express and Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Has anyone got any experience either running or playing any of these that they would like to share?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I've studied all campaigns and run Masks, which I heartily recommend.

HotOE seems a bit forced to me, with the characters being bound to the itinerary of the train. It is, as the topic suggests, railroady.

BtMoM is also a bit forced, because the players need to generate characters suited to an arctic expedition and, more important, their options for backup characters are extremely limited: only NPCs who are on the expedition's roster are available.

MoN avoids these problems. If you're prepared to have characters from England, Egypt, Kenya and what not, your players will have no problem replenishing their ranks.

 

[Wraith Form]

i've studied all campaigns and run masks, which i heartily recommend.

+1.

 

[ancientvaults]

+2, although Dreamlands is also delicious.

 

[Boregar]

Thanks for the replies, but my suggestion was met with little enthusiasm by all but one of my players. So it looks as if its not going to happen any time soon.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Thanks for the replies, but my suggestion was met with little enthusiasm by all but one of my players. So it looks as if its not going to happen any time soon.

Hmmh, I see no reason for this. Horror gaming is much more intense if there are not more than two or three players.

I've run the first part of my MoN campaign with two players and we had a blast. They, grown ups in their thirties, told me afterwards they were actually scared ... on their way home.

 

[Wraith Form]

Thanks for the replies, but my suggestion was met with little enthusiasm by all but one of my players. So it looks as if its not going to happen any time soon.

Sorry to hear that--you have (if I may be blunt) lame players.

If you were nearby in the US, I'd gladly have you run it for me and my friends!

 

[Boregar]

Sorry to hear that--you have (if I may be blunt) lame players.

If you were nearby in the US, I'd gladly have you run it for me and my friends!

Now I wouldn't necessarily call them lame - but I take your point.

The complaint seemed to be mainly regarding the often 'temporary' nature of CoC characters, which I think shows up my rather more 'old-school' approach to gaming. Most of them are more used to recent versions of D&D, where a lot of time and energy is invested into creating a character, rather than the more 'expendable' nature of PC's in lots of older games.

 

[Odhanan]

Masks of Nyarlathotep is one of the best RPG campaigns ever written. Period.

Any gamer would do well to own and run that one.

 

[Aus_Snow]

The complaint seemed to be mainly regarding the often 'temporary' nature of CoC characters, which I think shows up my rather more 'old-school' approach to gaming. Most of them are more used to recent versions of D&D, where a lot of time and energy is invested into creating a character, rather than the more 'expendable' nature of PC's in lots of older games.

CoC needn't be like that. My very first character (for that system) lasted years! Okay, he was a bit lucky in that regard. In fact, he also evaded insanity, for the most part, until the very end. . .

Anyway, as always, it's up to the GM. And players. I've seen "sure bets" with uber-stats and the works, dead before session two. I dunno, YMMV and all.