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Thanks a bunch :) this was very helpful ahead of our start of the chapter yesterday!

The first game I ran, I went waaaay overboard with creating props, music and even lighting. It really helped. The players were impressed and it got me less inhibited and caught up in the story, which got the players into it too. I handwaved a crapload of rules and just made command decisions to call advantage/disadvantage rolls. From a technical standpoint it was absolute garbage. From a roleplaying/story standpoint it was a ton of fun! So I have since then taken more of a non-technical approach, and done liberal house rules to maximize in-game time over fussing over book chapters/verses.

Thanks for this. A buddy is running a campaign and invited me to join. I want to learn beforehand to speed things up. Appreciate the info..

Thank you for reviewing this, it will be my first adventure as Keeper and your insight was very helpful ❤

🥳❤️👍🏿 one of the few videos I’ve seen that speak positively of fudging without denying they use it themselves

I’m on a quest to collect all the house rules on TH-cam - do you have a video in your back catalogue about the house rules you use? If not, would you consider making such a video? I have a particular interest in d20 systems like D&D, but I’m not picky - I want to collect all the house rules I can for TTRPGs

Hi, this series is great, thank you! Do you think that the campaign could be played with the starter set rules?

Speaking of easy leveling, the absolute easiest leveling you can get is your character has died or gone completely mad so it's a non-issue! Perhaps someday I'll participate in a long campaign in this system but the big draw for me is how perfect Call of Cthulhu is for single-session scenarios. Everyone goes in knowing survival is far from guaranteed which I believe is one of the secret ingredients contributing toward the heavy role-play aspect. If I'm only going to get to play this character once, then I've got to use every moment I've got! This frees the player up to be riskier and more open to playing up their character versus being playing defensive as a player protecting their game piece.

I aim to be a planner ready to throw it all out at the drop of a hat. The setting should be fleshed out enough to let the players go down unexpected roads. I hope to make a sandbox with threads compelling enough that the players will do their own railroading. I want to know the rules well enough to give the players confidence in the system and thus their ability to affect the game, while also being flexible in the name of fun. I will try to have the players know keeping the game fun is a cooperative effort, while the obstacles and antagonists are sufficiently confounding and challenging to make them worth overcoming. I must give the players enough description to know their options while leaving room to let them make indirect additions, like trying to find a clue that was unplanned, but makes sense. I should be a springboard for getting the players to interact with each other as much as possible as to not hog the spotlight from the stars of the show. Going to be running my first game soon, never been a Keeper or any kind of GM before.

I love this campaign so much. I've run it multiple times in various editions, and even the first time through in the first edition, with young players in their twenties playing 8 - 10 hours a week, it still took us most of a year. But I recognize the difficulty for players. I've worked as a professional investigator and a social scientist. When I play in CoC big campaigns (I never got to play Masks, grumble), I create case boards and files, type my notes, and organize clues. None of my players has ever been quite that obsessive--though many do take notes, they rarely take the time to summarize and draw conclusions beyond the "we could go to x locations and check it out." It often surprises me just how counter-intuitive simply going and talking to witnesses (or following up on them, "Can you think of anyone else who we should talk to") is for most players. When they are really stuck, I might have a clear-thinking reporter, professor, or investigator contact show up and ask them questions, revealing they know more than they think, even if they can't remember the exact details. (Then they can make an idea roll to remember the specifics that their characters would likely remember or be able to reconstruct--or check their notes more carefully.)

Obsidian is better than One Note. Give it a swing, I have the Arkham book mapped out in Obsidian, it's cool because it makes a graph of connections so as you set it up you know how everyone and everything is linked together.

SPOILER: Hey, thanks for the Video! We start in about 1-2 months and I am just wondering: When did your players get the hint that they actually race time regarding the Grand Conclusion?

With the limitation of only seven floor cards per Netrunning Deck, if opted to buy multiple decks, how many decks would I need to be able to represent complete sets of netruns?

Best review ever on this deck, greets from Colombia, choom!

Players not knowing what is happening is par for the course in CoC, hahah

This is a great investigation with some meaty characters. It's a shame they didn't get to the electrical room: that has such potential for mayhem and madness. 😃👍

Thanks XPLovecat! This sounds "cool", in a grim, no-hope kind of way. 🙂 This is the first review I've heard from that Nameless Horrors book, maybe I need to get myself a copy of it. Thanks!

It takes "down on your luck" very literally.

This one sounds cool. I do get a chuckle out of how many CofC games end in fire. Even with folks who don't have a lot of experience. The last time I ran it (The Haunting, for relatively new players), not only did the players not really find out what was happening, but they burned everything down, so nobody would find out.

Glass Cannon Network did an actual play of this which was really good in their "New Game, Who Dis?" series

Its absolutely wonderful video!!! Very Usefull. I want to find something about preparing. Exactly about how many hours to prepare, because I have just 1 time experience and I spend 4 hours. And also good idea about OneNote. Before I used paper notes ) So THANK YOU about this material!! We already tries The Haunting, now and I like a keeper and my friends wants more )

Sounds like a blast! Kickstarter here I come. Ready to play...or die trying! 😅

This game looks great! Different and fun! I'm using your Kickstart link right now! Thanks!!!

I think you need to do the Egypt section just for the iconic Nyarlathotep portrayal.

This looks like fun. A nice "between campaigns" or not everyone could make the regular game kind of thing.

I've finally given up on Masks. The lack of narrative cohesiveness makes it almost unplayable. The prologue is fantastic, everything else... not at all.

Don't forget the Pisco Sour

Theres a fan made variation of the deck.. I like the core deck itself but being able to "write your own programs" is also nice since it gives you the resources for that. I feel mixing the 2 resources could really give homebrew games a huge boost as well. Maybe it is worth checking out

I certainly hope theres no player deaths! 😮 Good video, very helpful!

Great video, XPL. Thanks for the additional tips!

sounds interesting but the inclusion of a modern day of a dei/ gender confusion/alt orientation msg makes it a no thanks for me. 1920's Call of Cthulhu is ruined by modern messaging of current socio/political issues that didn't exist at the time (1220) I find it to be distracting and irksome.

Thanks so much for the review, XPLovecat! I have added a lot of improvements since then and it is about to hit the market in hardcopy!

My favorite three things. Cosmic horror, Vermont, and puns.

Lol Turn your back for a second and they go all murder-hobo on ya...gotta love 'em Great review, thank you!

I love sandbox scenarios, gotta go look at this one.

Fun scenario.

Great video. I like how you covered all aspects and give advice for the keepers to help with the experience 👍

The pun of this title hits home. I'm from Maine, and my mother used to pronounce "take it for granted" in a way that sounded like "take it for granite," and it confused young me so much. I think it was actually watching Labyrinth and hearing David Bowie pronounce it correctly that finally set me right. The scenario sounds interesting. Good prep advice.

Very cool!

Good video, thank you

Have the police send out a mental health crisis unit instead of officers

Everyone opens the door!

My players have the Mirror of Gal. I repeat, my players have the Mirror of Gal and they have learned how to use it!

Did you run your campaign in regular Call of Cthulhu or use Pulp Cthulhu?

Thank you so much for making this / these! I've been playing other RPGs for over 30 years and started listening to CoC actual play podcasts during the start of the pandemic. I'm finally getting ready to start Keeping and for my first effort I am going to try the utterly insane course of running 'Masks' for my family. I know, horrible idea, right? These tip videos are therefore gratefully appreciated. Subscribed, and going to watch them all. :-)

An element of interest for your player: Labotomy had a ~60% success rate, which is great compared to the previous best treatment option, which was nothing with a 0% success rate. It's a great detail for a character to diagetically take pride in that scientific development.

Maybe for the apartment puzzle it could be each room is the first of the 6 rooms. But it they skip a door, they find the second room. And so on.

How did your players kill Jack?

I listened to Phaedra run this on her podcast, Stars Are Right, and it was so atmospheric. Now every time I hear somebody use the phrase, I think of this scenario IMMEDIATELY.

I tend to run my modern mythos stuff in delta green and stick to 1920s CoC and even then my delta green is set in 2002ish so i dont have to deal with social media camera phones etc