Wisdom and Guidance for a CoC d20 Newbie

[MetalBard]

I've had the CoC d20 book and the gamemaster's pack since it came out, but now that Halloween is coming and FRPgames is shipping me my Eldritch Horrors & Occult Investigators counters, I am planning on doing a Halloween game. Trouble is, I've never run any Cthulhu, so while I have some pretty good ideas as to what I want to do, I think I need some wisdom and guidance.

I'm not new to running RPGs. I have run all manner of D&D campaigns (including Ravenloft) since 1992 and have also run Wraith, Vampire and Mage games for extended periods of time (6 months or more). I've read some H.P. Lovecraft, but I would love to see what kind of advice people have on running a one-shot CoC game and also what are the "little things" that I should watch out for that would be unique to a CoC (and more specifcally CoC d20) game.

Thanks for your dark wisdom in advance!

Also, does anybody know if Delta Green d20 is still going to be a reality?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

You might be interested in downloading and reading The Shandler Chronicles

 

[Angel Tarragon]

You also might want to consider renting a few movies that were produced based on the Cthulhu Mythos. Follow this link to find the movies that are. Also Dagon (a personal fave of mine) and Cthulhu Mansion are two movies not but included but are a part of the Cthulhu Mythos movies. An option is to run the adventure based off one of the movies or Lovecraft novels.

 

[Olive]

Mood, mood, mood.

Turn down the lights as low as possible... maybe play errie music. The GMing chapter in the book is really good advice.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I'll second the mood thing. Use your voice to set it as well...speak softly when everything is quiet, and make sure to bang your hand on the table when a window gets busted or whatnot. Spook 'em out, make 'em jump.

 

[MetalBard]

Awesome, yes, these Shandler chronicles are cool. I heard of them, but hadn't gotten around to reading them. Kinda nice counter-weight to H.P.'s stuff in a way.

Thanks for the mood-enhancing suggestions. I've used a few in a Ravenloft campaign I ran a while back... introducing that stained-glass golem with a sudden and loud "crash" of dice, box and table really woke everyone up. Hehe... thanks for reminding me though, I wouldn't have had that in mind.

I tried watching the Necronomicon series of films a while back, but I just couldn't get into them. Whichof the mythos movies come highly recommended?

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Delta-Green d20

I think this got stalled a year ago:

http://www.eos-press.com/products-dg.html

 

[Anakyne]

Hmm, although not that lovecraftian... I would look at Sleepy Hollow for the feel of a small town paranoia and it's locals ! And how they perceive the newcomer ! ... Add one, and only ONE monster to the deal... Byakhees might be interesting... Involve Hastur if your characters goes to far...

I've had them in the modern time, purchasing the character in the metro of montreal during a metro shutdown we had last year. I've had them in the dark ages as vampires to suck the blood out of cows to feed two siamese-twins locked under a church under the control of Hastur and a possessed priest...

I usually starts from one idea, scratch around it, add one monster and that's it...

Alien, In the mouth of madness can be helpful

 

[JimAde]

And make sure to have a stack of playable NPCs handy. Those CoC PC's are like popcorn.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

When running, try to get a feeling of suspense and terror, not horror. Nothing ruins a game like a shoggoth in the sun.

'Its a giant..blob? Right.'

Seperate characters, have them find out about things. Most importantly use silence in game - silence in a house, silence in a field. Silence is the worst because they know it's impending disaster.