uglifruit

I think this is exactly where I am trying to be careful. I know my players (socially) very well, and can probably predict which of them (there's one in particular) who would probably not enjoy a 'peep behind the curtain'. Weirdly this makes me think of Stage Magic, of which I am a fan. Regardless of knowing how a lot of tricks are 'done' - I can still enjoy (or criticise) the execution, whereas I think some people have stage magic completely ruined by knowing the mechanics of a trick, even if they think that they want to know.

Thanks everyone - these are all great points to consider.

After running a scenario to completion, how much do you let your players see "behind the curtain". Do you let them know, if they didn't already realise, which lesser god was pulling the strings? Do you let them know about plot threads they missed? Do you let them know which of the n.p.c.s were made up on the spot, because they'd done something unexpected? Or do you just nod and smile knowingly, and let them assume everything was Just As You Planned?

Spent money I can ill afford on this. Very much looking forward to it.

Do you find spending luck to modify rolls only makes sense within a Campaign-type setting (where Luck becomes a resource that the Investigators might want to hold back?).

Perfectly reasonable. Perhaps the Starter Set rules/guidance should make this explicit. I'm certainly not criticising the excellent price point/value of the Starter Set.

Thanks Mike. I do understand that reasoning, I just think that a new Keeper needs to be aware of the implication of giving out the handouts/maps that are given. I'd fear that in helping the Keeper by providing those maps they could hand them out and slightly telegraph important plot. Hopefully most new Keepers are as nervous as I was/am, and eagerly read other Keeper's reports before running a session. This was very helpful to me, and I'm hopeful that my reports might be similarly helpful in some small way to other new Keepers.

I think it is a case of "forewarned is forearmed". The fact I was running my session via Zoom rather than face to face, (and the fact I'm new to this Keeper role) made me prep A LOT and consider what the players might take away from everything I said/gave them. Not matching Keys on maps is a bit unforgivable. As I said, I'd always prefer maps with redacted Keys I can give to the players as I see fit (and certainly not populated with n.p.c.s that I may or may not choose to use).

Spoilers abound here, for Dead Man's Stomp, and for Edge Of Darkness to some degree (the third and second scenarios from the Starter Set respectively). This will probably make little sense unless you've read the DMS scenario. So this is the third of the three Starter Set scenarios I've been running for some new players - and by far the one that asks the most of the Keeper. I decided I wanted to link this scenario to the first two, if possible - despite the different locale. I suggested that in playing Dead Man's Stomp it'd be interesting to have a Black investigator (given the recent interest in the Black Lives Matter movement, the racially sensitive aspects within this scenario seemed particularly interesting). So Luke Chan (of Chinese ancestry) was sidelined, and Obiri Mtumbo (a very wealthy aristocratic man from the Kingdom of Burundi) was introduced. We discussed how he was educated in public school in England alongside Heath Montgomery-Chadwick (the dilettante who'd been through Paper Chase and Edge Of Darkness). Heath's wild tales of what had happened to him in Arkham had spread, but he wasn't widely believed - but his old school acquaintance Obiri was intrigued and rich enough to join him in America to see for him self. Heath had now a camera, and was determined to capture evidence of his exploits to give credence to his tales when he returned home. Rupert 'Bare' Knuckles (the gung-ho chef, ex-military) returned for his third adventure, having just about recovered from the beating he took in the farmhouse at the end of Edge Of Darkness. In order to link DMS to EOD I told my investigators that Warren Rice (the n.p.c. Languages Professor at Miskatonic University that they'd met in EoD) had made enquiries about the sarcophagus markings he couldn't translate and said that he'd contacted an old buddy (Julius Cockburn) he'd been at university with, who now specialised in exotic languages had said he might be able to help them. He asked them to meet him in Small's Paradise - the Jazz Bar in Harlem that plays host to the opening 'scene' of DMS. Within EOS the investigators had heard tell of a mysterious wealthy collector of the exotic from New Orleans (Mr Barnabas). I'd ad libbed this plot point, and nearly lost one of my investigators to a week long round trip to Louisiana! Fortunately they didn't go there, as I let chose that point to let them know Merriweather had died and the investigators thought the farmhouse might be a more pressing destination at that time (leading to the climax of that scenario). It might be worth noting that I deliberately didn't tell my players the title of this scenario was "Dead Man's Stomp" - as it highlighted something in the story that I wasn't sure I wanted to give them that 'meta-clue' to. Harlem, 1925: Having been seated at the table in the club (alongside Pete Mansuco, to whom they were not introduced) one of the investigators (Rupert 'Bare' Knuckles), immediately asked if there were any pretty women in the bar. Typical 'Bare'! A 'spot hidden' and he saw someone at the bar seemingly eyeing him up. So he went over to introduced himself to (my first hastily ad-libbed n.p.c.) Lorelei. He bought her a drink, and they danced (DEX roll, to make sure he didn't embarrass himself). Back at the table Leroy Turner asked Manusco to move so he could get to the stage, and got put in his place - Black men don't ask White men to move - the investigator Heath tried to engage Manusco in conversation to diffuse the situation, eliciting a nod of thanks in recognition from Leroy Turner, who got to the stage where the band started playing 'their newest new number'. While this happened Julius Cockburn came and introduced himself to the other two investigators. He looked at the photograph they showed him of their mysterious sarcophagus - as a precaution they'd left the actual sarcophagus at their hotel, much to his disappointment. It was at this point that gangster Joey assassinated Manusco - with Obiri getting a particularly messy view. The band played on, as Mansuco's reanimated body started movning and all hell broke loose in the club. Julius Cockburn and Joey made their escapes - with Knuckles following Joey, and Obiri losing Julius in the crowd. Knuckles was sharp-eyed enough to spot the Packard leaving had no licence plate. The dead Mansuco made his way to the exit, being trampled in the panicked crowds, and Knuckles then witnessed him run over by the police car that arrived, after hearing him muttering 'Joey'. Written n.p.c. Roger Daniels (federal agent) rounded up Lorelei (along with many others who'd obviously been drinking away for questioning). Knuckles, not obviously drunk, charmed his way out of this. Inside the club Leroy Turner, still grateful to Heath for de-escalating the situation with Mansuco earlier, said the Police were 'bound to be here soon, follow me and I'll show you a quiet way out'. Which he did, leaving Obiri and Heath in the street out back - accidentally dropping the business card for the funeral directors - that the investigators found with it's "be there at 11am sharp!" note written on it. The investigators met up again, now not knowing where Julius, Joey Lawson (the hitman who they got a good look at, but didn't know the name of), Peter Manusco (the victim, who they didn't know the name of), or Leroy (who they didn't know the name of, or that he was significant) were! Heath slipped back inside and bribed a barman to see if anyone called 'Joey' had left anything in the coat-check. No, they hadn't - but did I mean "Joey Lawson"? He'd picked up his coat before he left (unlike a lot of people who'd left their coats in a panic). Apparently if one leaves ones coat your name is recorded in a ledger. The investigators hypothesised that "Joey Lawson" might be the hitman, as he'd left slightly earlier and had had time to get his coat - unlike most of the fleeing crowd. The next day the team split up to cover more ground. Obiri set off to the library to find out what was going on, Knuckles to the police station, and Heath to the funeral directors. Obiri made some headway in scouring the local newspaper archive (eventually), finding out that the funeral scheduled for today at 11am was that of Frederick Fayette, and the details of his hit-and-run death and his surviving wife (Elizabeth Johnson Fayette). Knuckles confirmed it was Manusco that died, and got his address from the police by befriending Roger Daniels (the policeman he'd met last night - getting coffee for an exhausted police officer gets you a long way in this town!). He also heard the name Archie "The Boss" Bonato for the first time, a local mobster kingpin. Lorelei wasn't at the station - she had been released without charge - there'd been far too many drunks for Daniels to process them all, and she was clearly small fry. Heath met a frosty reception at the funeral directors - they didn't take kindly to a rich white Englishman asking about their business. Whilst waiting for the funeral to start he had more success in a local cafe, where a kindly owner explained Freddie Fayette was popular and she knew him he as he was a delivery driver. The funeral, as written in the scenario, went down - with Leroy Turner arriving, and playing his horn, thus waking the dead man in the coffin. Heath witnessed this and got caught up in the scuffle as the funeral-goers turned on the funeral directors ("They nearly buried him alive!"). Only the police clearing the area avoided a major fracas in the street. Heath recognised the gunman from the club, (but still didn't know who he was at this stage - unless he was the 'Joey' that the zombie Manusco had muttered about). He did manage to get a few photographs of the chaos that he hoped would come out when he developed them and returned home. Knuckles set off to see Manusco's apartment, and found it in a state - clearly someone had searched the place (all the 'B' files from the cabinet were missing). The scrap of paper he found in the bin suggested it was Joey who'd arranged to meet (and kill) Manusco. It was at this point that we finished for the evening. It gave me pause to think about how and where I could make sure they found out who Leroy was (and his importance). They still didn't even know his name! They'd not intuited that he was important - and they were still thinking about the Sarcophagus translation from 'Julius Cockburn' that I'd added to 'link' the scenarios. By the next session I'd concocted a plan for how this would work - and how I could linked the scenario and my n.p.c.s back together. They were clearly going to visit Columbia university to try to find Professor Julius Cockburn... [Session 2] On arriving at his office they found Marie, Julius's secretary, who told them Julius was in Egypt - and had been for months. He wasn't due back for another six months and she had had very little to do now, "...since his message." I presented them with the prop postcard she'd received, a few weeks after he'd set off. An extreme charm success clearly meant she liked the investigator Knuckles, and was happy to chat to him at length, about anything. Lonely and bored, she really didn't want him to go. A Spot Hidden made them notice a photograph of a young Professor Warren Rice (the person from Edge of Darkness scenario - at Miskatonic University - who'd spoken to Julius and arranged the meeting) on the wall, with his arm around a similarly aged fat man. Not someone they recognised. Who was it? they asked. THAT was Julius Cockburn?! That's not the man they met at Small's Paradise. When asked why she had nothing to do now (aside of watering the plants, which she was doing when they arrived) - she showed them the telegram she'd received about a month ago. [I was relying on the picking up on that she said that, but I'm sure I could have forced it quite easily]. Gadzooks! It looks like the Barnabas (the collector from New Orleans that I'd ad libbed in Edge of Darkness) had potentially been involved and was having Julius's post redirected! Upon them describing the 'very small man' that they'd encountered at Small's Paradise to Marie - and if anyone she knew fitted that description we had some light relief when she directed them to Jack Waters - a small, and clearly quite simple, cleaner who worked at the university. Knuckles spoke to him (as he'd never met him at the club) as Heath and Obiri hid and spied to see if they recognised him. Marie also told the team that it was quite nice to have something to do, as aside of these couple of enquiries for Julius Cockburn this week she'd had very little to do. Other people asking about Professor Cockburn you say...? Yes, "There was that Trumpet Player came in, asking about the markings on his trumpet - seeing if he could get them translated. ... He left his address." Phew. In doing so I felt I'd managed to get the investigators back on track, give away Leroy's name and address AND close down my macguffin link to the previous scenario, all without the players feeling railroaded (hopefully). Using the down-time between sessions was a godsend here, and playing over a couple of sessions really improved the narrative for that (there's no way I'd have been so tidy in my thinking if I'd done it all on the hoof). With renewed purpose they set off to visit Leroy's place. He wasn't home, but Obiri did the talking, and got them into his shared apartment. They learnt he'd got a gig (the funeral) and "knowing Leroy, if he's being paid he'll probably go and drink it away straight after." They also saw the photo of his beloved Marnie, and - in his suit pocket found the sheet music to "Dead Man's Stomp". Leroy returned at this point, and they went for a drink with him - and discussed how he came by his trumpet (given by Louis Armstrong. Allowing me to do my best Satchmo impression). They didn't question this story at all, but quizzed him about the sheet music. "Oh it's a new tune of Charlie Johnson's, we debuted it the other night at Small's. We recorded it last week, that's why I've got the music." The investigator's suddenly panicked about the recording - using the trumpet - but I decided Johnson had asked for it played on cornet for the recording. "Why cornet, not your new trumpet?" "Cos he's the boss." I didn't want the investigators fearing the recording! Leroy was eager to go - and left after taking mild offence to a question. The investigators were delayed in having to pick up the tab, thus getting to the street they saw him being kidnapped. (As the scenario dictates). A "Follow that car" cab chase later, and they were at The Old Garage. Here they got the keys the Packard from outside, and overheard the conversation between Joey and Archie "the boss" Bonato ("Shoot yourself Joey! If he can play the horn to make you come back to life, what's the problem"). I also had Lorelei there - by now I'd decided she was Archie's moll, and had witnessed Joey killing Manusco (not as planned). I was pleased to bring her back in. The vans in the garage contained bottles of bootleg hooch. Bonato ordered 'Jimmy' to do the deed, and Joey got shot - with Leroy then being told to play under pains of being shot. This was the only section where my investigators did take it rather passively - and the scene played out with them in the main bit of the garage - and Zombie Joey being shot at by Archie and Jimmy as he stumbled out into the main garage. A deranged looking Leroy ran out, and Archie saw our investigators urging Jimmy to 'kill them, they know too much!'. Jimmy's obvious shock at what'd happened to Joey (resurrection!) was enough time for the gang to jump into the Packard and set off after Leroy who ran straight towards the cemetery. [A player having to leave meant there was another session break about here, which gave me a good chance to plan the conclusion] Arriving there just after Leroy they chased him to Marnie's grave where his playing woke some of the dead around about. They tried to stop him playing, but to no avail. A few Zombie injuries later and Jimmy the mobster turned up wildly firing his machine gun at them. They now had Zombies, Jimmy and Leroy playing his trumpet to contend with. Injuries were sustained. An investigator, and Jimmy knocked unconscious - then Jimmy killed by a Zombie. Uh oh! And them rising again in Zombie form. I was fairly lenient on the investigators - especially after the session break I didn't want to have them immediately killed. Obiri managed to lure some of the Zombies to Jimmy's van - still full of hooch, and set it alight killing some of them that way. Heath was eventually the one to kill Leroy Turner - who himself had now died and been resurrected by his own playing - was raising more dead. Heath used the film from his camera to wrap around Leroy, and then threw a flaming bottle of hooch (made into a molotov cocktail using his pocket square) on to Leroy and elbowing his trumpet into (and through) Leroy's skull. A suitably epic climax! The Zombies collapsed, and Police sirens were heard. The investigators scarpered, not wanting to be caught up in the aftermath and explanations. As a conclusion (and after character development), we learnt of what happened (the police blamed vandals, Small's Paradise reopened). As my 'conclusion' I said that Rupert 'Bare' Knuckles received a package through the post at his bakery a few weeks later. From Marie, Julius Cockburn's secretary who'd clearly been somewhat smitten with him. It was the new single by Charlie Johnson's orchestra - "Teddy Bear's Picnic". It made Maria think of him. Ahhhh. But look at the B-side! Arghhh! (The unintended gap between sessions 2 and 3 had given me time to make those record labels to wrap the story up like that - which I thought was quite sweet). I was pleased to find Teddy Bear's Picnic was written in the early 1900s, but didn't get words added until the 1930s, so was not period inaccurate in 1925. --- The next day via whatsapp I received...(from the player who was controlling Knuckles) (and from the player who had Heath)... --- All told we had an excellent time with it. As a comment I did find the Harlem map having different key numbers on the handout to the version the keeper had in the scenario a silly inconvenience. (And I didn't like having the funeral directors already labelled before they knew it was important). Instead I gave the players a version of the Harlem map from the scenario (with all 10 locations on it numbered, but redacted the Key, so I could tell them things as I saw fit. If it suited my purpose for locations to be near or far apart I could change them on the fly then, as I introduced them). The map of Small's Paradise had Peter Manusco on the key! Which I wasn't having! I clipped that off, and only let them see the main area of the club unless they went down the passages at the back. Similarly the Old Garage (having gang thugs on there) didn't suit my purpose as I had Lorelei as well - so I just used the front of the garage (and no key) again. I prefer blank maps I think! Despite these tiny misgivings I found this an excellent scenario and we had great fun within in. The criticisms about railroading in this story that you see is only true if the Keeper lets that happen. Being flexible to the investigators, letting them split up and not being too precious where the key. information they need comes from will get you through this without it feeling like an 'on rails' story I found. My players (who I talked with this morning) were amazed that Julius and Marie, and Lorelie were not part of the written scenario, and didn't feel they were on rails at all apparently. Which is the biggest complement they could pay me I think. If I have any advice with this scenario (and any), it's use the down time between sessions to react to what has happened, and plan what might happen as a result. And don't be inflexible in your thinking/planning. Anyway this scenario was GREAT fun. I look forward to handing the keeper job over to one of my players next time... he wants to try a modern setting scenario, and I'm eager to be an investigator for a change.

Some thoughts and some things I think would improve a new Keeper's experience (based upon my play through). The Call Of Cthulhu Starter Set, at just over £20 directly from Chaosium + postage, definitely represents good value. One could argue that Alone Against The Flames and the Quick Start Rules are available as free pdfs - but having printed versions is definitely a boon. Within the box you really do have (almost) everything required for many hours of running games - and enough of a flavour of 'how it works' to build your own scenarios if that appeals. The contents: Alone against the Flames. A fine introduction to the world and the basics of the system - and making the link between 'choose your own adventure' style books and tabletop RPGs is a nice gentle unthreatening introduction. The intro rule book is well formatted and easy to read. If I wanted anything beyond this, it'd have been a list of pre-prepared n.p.c. names (that's all, just typical names) so that in having to ad-lib a character/headstone/victim I had wasn't pulling a name from my the top of my head. The 'Investigators Companion' book has such a list, but it's also easy enough to prepare one in advance of running a scenario. I'd recommend all keepers, new or old, have one to hand. Five pre-generated character sheets covering a diverse range of backgrounds. Character sheets to fill in and make custom investigators. (Along with the rules to make them) A set of polyhedral dice. A booklet of handouts. The first misstep of the set in my opinion - this would have been so much more useful as loose sheets (though it's easy enough to cut the binding off) - but three of the pages in this contain more than one handout per page. So folding/cutting would be necessary to not give out other handouts too. Practically this will mean using the PDF (free with purchase of Starter Set from Chaosium) instead, and printing that for most players. There are a couple of other things I'll say about handouts with respect to scenarios. The three scenarios: This contains spoilers for the scenarios (perhaps don't read this bit if you're going to be a player, rather than keeper). Paper Chase - a relatively un-deadly intro scenario written for one investigator and one keeper - though I modified this for three investigators and one keeper without much trouble. A nice short intro, and some good opportunity to role play. This scenario highlights the importance of negotiation rather than violence. The 'map' handout for players utterly telegraphs what is important (the graveyard) and I'd probably advise not giving players this, unless they are stuck (even then, and Idea roll might be better). I'd also say some other handouts (of which there are some good ones online available. Having Kimble's Diary prepared as a handout might help a new keeper/player. Similarly I was surprised that the newspaper articles that are mentioned aren't given as handouts. Google provided third party ones I used.). In a slightly picky way I'd also point out the (great) artwork that accompanies the scenario isn't useful insofar as the description of Kimble as Ghoul makes him sound far far more through his transformation. The 'Ghoul' illustration is (perhaps) of help to players in imagining him. I showed the other Kimble-reading pics afterward the scenario when we discussed what Kimble had been up to over the past year. Edge Of Darkness - a great blend of investigation and epic climax (fighting off the undead whilst reciting a ritual to banish an evil thing). It's easy to join this on to the previous investigation, if you want the players to use the same characters. There are a lot of red-herrings/potential plot hooks for the keeper to manage here. This is A Good Thing (if you, as keeper can manage them), but can be a sticking point if the players become too focused on those rather than the job at hand. I very nearly lost my investigators to a trip to New Orleans! Fortunately I was able to ramp up the action locally to make that the focus of their investigation. Worth reading other people's experiences of this scenario online before running it, to mitigate against some of the potential sticking points. Dead Man's Stomp - this scenario, that requires the most of the Keeper, is kept for last. Set in Harlem, and moving the action away from Lovecraft's Country and into a setting with very real historical context might require the keeper getting their head around that (Charlie Johnson's Band, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Smalls are real people, and Small's Paradise club and Harlem in 1925 are real places - perhaps the keeper might want to make sure they are 'true' to that reality as far as possible). The criticism that is commonly levelled at Dead Man's Stomp is that it is in danger of feeling railroaded - and that the investigators are watching a story, rather than taking part. I think that careful keepering can stop this - the very short timescale involved (scene one is the evening, the next major scene is 11am the next day). The investigators splitting up and investigating different threads means it's far less likely to feel 'on rails' for them. But requires gauging who's not been in the spotlight for a while, and when to push the drama. My personal minor criticism of this scenario is not with the scenario at all (just be prepared) but in the handouts. There are beautiful maps of 1. Harlem 1925, 2. Small's Paradise Club and 3. An Old Garage that give away in their key the name of important n.p.c.s (in the case of 2 and 3) and an important place of interest (in the case of 1) that the investigators don't know about. It's also particularly annoying that the Keeper version of the Harlem map has a different key to the one in the player handouts and the 'numbers' don't match up. (Columbia University is 9 on one, and 8 on the other for example). I'd MUCH prefer the map with no key at all - and I can tell the players what the numbers mean as and when they find/need them. (I redacted the key from the keeper's version of the Harlem map, and gave them that.). I also redacted the key to the Small's Map, and gave them the main area they could see, and revealed the backstage area only as they went there. Similarly The Old Garage - with it's key players didn't match my version of the key players (having introduced an n.p.c.) so I just gave them the main area they could see. It's a shame because these handouts are beautifully done - they just give too much information in my opinion. If handled sensitively Dead Man's Stomp also has something to say about storytelling a very sad story, in a racially sensitive time. With an epic ending. The three scenarios can be linked (with a little work from the keeper) if desired, and make for a fun trio of stories - although it is slightly disappointing that Zombies feature in two of them. Given the wealth of horrors available, its a pity that we don't see a bit more variety (although people love Zombies, apparently). All told though, despite those minor criticisms around handouts (and they are minor) this is an excellent set - a great introduction (or reintroduction, in my case) to Call Of Cthulhu - with the new 7e rules (that work excellently).

I've posted this photo to our Whatsapp group and the players. My players loved it (and are devastated that they've realised the gunshots were post-death, and that she was engaged). (The Toe-tag I downloaded for free from https://www.hplhs.org/resources.php plus a stock image of body + filters)

Yes, I think they did have a good time. Interesting how the two sessions that this scenario spanned played out so differently - with the second one being Action! Danger! Guns! Zombies! Peril! ... but the first session was a much more considered investigation, with the players obviously revelling in the freedom of exploring Arkham. Afterwards one player said how much he enjoyed the action of the last session (perhaps he's more inclined towards the Pulp variant), whereas the other two probably favoured the less crunchy, more character based role-playing of the first session. I do think that this scenario gives a good opportunity for plenty of both, and feels a good introduction to how life-threatening the situations can be to normal human beings. I think having it split over two sessions felt more natural than three acts. In thirds I think it would have been difficult for me to make each act 'distinct', and act 2 could have felt very similar to act 1. (Although if they'd headed to New Orleans it might have gone very differently and tested my improvisational skills to the limit!)

Well - two more sessions down and we've tackled The Edge Of Darkness (the old classic, as included in the new Starter Set). My three investigators fleshed out the backstories before we before this one began. We learned a bit more who Luke Chan (widowed), Rupert Knuckles (cook) and Heath (socialite) were. Again my players through themselves into this really well. Some gentle nudging of questions ("Who's back home?" "Are you married?" "Who do you care about?") and they were becoming more human characters that emerged. Into the scenario itself - the three investigators were asked to help an old friend, on his deathbed. As written the scenario has a few 'plot hooks' (or red herrings) that could provide springboards for further adventures... but what do you do if your investigators get a bit fixated on them - to the exclusion of the quest they're actually supposed to be on! In this session RK managed to get himself banned from the Orne Library, and then Luke managed to break into the restricted books section and stole De Vermiis Mysteriis (an arcane book that, according to the scenario as written, they shouldn't be able to get - but the players were so insistent, imaginative, and their efforts so entertaining - I decided not letting them ever succeed was the railroading I was trying to avoid). They'd also befriended a Languages Lecturer, but managed to completely piss off the Head Librarian. They seemed they definitely didn't want to talk to the police about the mysterious death they'd learnt of - but DID want to tour local antique dealers, gun shops and introduce themselves to more and more n.p.c.s that I needed to ad lib. It was all rather good fun, although not desperately action-y, and they were planning to journey to New Orleans the next day when I finally called time on that evening. I wish, in retrospect, I'd finished on a slightly different note (I thought of a cliffhanger that I really wish I'd gone with the next day. Ho hum.) Before the next session I looked up the travel time to New Orleans (~48 hours) and decided I needed to introduce more urgency in the proceedings - hopefully to motivate them to actually carry out their friend's dying wish and investigate the hamlet a few miles away instead of looking for exotic art dealers in Louisiana! I was pleased to have the affronted librarian that RK had offended cause a scene in the street - and reintroduce their dying friend's wife to tell them that he'd now died in hospital. This did the trick, and they cancelled their plans to visit New Orleans, instead visiting the farmhouse they 'should' have been heading towards all along. (Borrowing a car to get there, such was their urgency now). The people of the village near the farm were suspicious of outsiders, what with local Maggie having gone missing recently ... and my investigators jumped to all kinds of (wrong) conclusions about her being sacrificed, and headed to the farmhouse. As they investigated the farmhouse the impetuous Cook started really taking damage, and trying to climb into the attic was perilously close to him dying (although he didn't know it!). Eventually they performed the ritual - and killed two Zombies as well as a Zombie racoon. The climax had Luke seeing a vision of his dead wife, and the Socialite having to be physically restrained by the Cook to stop him walking into the arms (actually mouth) of the creature that they were trying to banish. This was the same Cook that the Socialite had previously attacked when he went temporarily insane, believing him to be his arch rival from back home. Somehow they all survived, albeit by the skin of their teeth. This was thanks to a couple of lucky rolls (not fudged rolls - I was perfectly prepared for one to die, and had a couple of characters on standby in case). We wrapped up the session discussing how they were going to explain the dead body of Maggie (that they'd killed in Zombie form). They decided they'd pin it on the hobo, (that they'd also killed as a Zombie), as they (rightly) thought the police would never believe the truth. Investigator development ensued and I shared a few snippets of information they didn't know about, so they learnt a bit more about the surrounding story. All told - a good couple of sessions - and again, the BRP Cthulhu 7edition is easy to get to grips with. Combat was new to my players, yet they soon got their head around it. And 'pushing' rolls in a narrative way was coming quite naturally to them. Especially when they were trying to concentrate on continuing their chant ("I try to block out the noise and smell by thinking about my latin master at school and focus on the pronunciation of the words!") Looking forward to Dead Man's Stomp next!

Thank you both, and I'll certainly take a look at The Auction, with those 7e conversion/update notes.

I'm new here - so apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place - or not spoilering things I should be. I've not RPG'd for a long while, but with lockdown upon us it seemed it'd be a good idea to try my an RPG via Zoom with 3 regular boardgame pals. I decided CoC would be my weapon of choice, having played it waaay back (and I don't really like Orcs, Goblins, etc). My group are not previously role players at all - but are keen boardgames (preferring quite heavy eurogames), so I knew this would be a little out of their comfort zone. I rpg'd years ago regularly, but haven't played for ages - but I have bought and read lots of RPG stuff in the interim with the intention of starting up again at some point. This is that point, it turns out. I own the CoC 7e Keeper's (core) Book, and the Investigators Book - but the Starter Set seemed cheap enough that my players might enjoy the slimmer rules to possibly read through themselves beforehand (of course none of them did!). So I wanted to launch into Paper Chase the first scenario - which is written as a one-keeper-one-investigator to keep things relatively easy for the Keeper to control. I didn't fancy running this scenario three times with each of the players - and as I had hoped that I might be able to keep the investigators for the next scenario (edge of darkness), I thought three investigators having solved the same crime, three times - each in potentially differently ways, would be a bit jarring. Here's how 'Paper Chase' went (for us) ... I slightly modified the setting to allow, and justify the three investigators. I first used the full rules (Keeper's Book) to build investigators with the players, rather than using the pregens or 'quick build', of the Starter Set - because I wanted to give the players some agency over who they created and their respective specialisms - plus I reasoned that I could explain a little of what the characteristics and skills meant whilst they were rolling then up. I think that worked well, and I was surprised how quickly their stats led to them choosing professions. They had a free choice, and I mapped them to professions in the Investigator's Book. We ended up with a Cook who used to be in the army, a British socialite visiting the area and an American born mechanical engineer of Chinese heritage. These choices led to their skills options which the players enjoyed distributing their specialisms in (even if they barely knew what they meant at this point). Looking at the skills chosen, the mechanical engineer was an amateur magician, it turns out. I explained to them that the Arnoldsburg Library hosted the monthly meetings (first Tuesday of the month) for the "Society for the Exploration of the Unexplained" and told them they had turned up to this month's meeting... But immediately asked them to explain why weren't they in attendance last month? (Encouraging them to think a bit about why their character might not have been there, and gently develop the character a bit - the cook had a special order on at his bakery that he runs, the socialite wasn't even in the country last month, the mechanical engineer wasn't well). I'd decided that just the three of them were there to this month's meeting, because as they'd not been there last month the weren't aware that this month's meeting was cancelled. Then I moved into the 'hook' of the scenario - n.p.c. Timothy entering and looking for help from the Society with the mysterious robbery of some of his late/missing uncle's books. The scenario is quite simple, and not particularly dangerous for the investigators, so I'd gambled on them surviving this one - thus being able to use the same investigators for the next one. Luckily, they did survive - despite the cook blundering in somewhat recklessly during the sole dangerous vignette. I also deliberately had them leave the 'verbose' character traits and 'connections' from their investigator sheets free - and I'm going to revisit that before the second scenario. There was definitely a more gung-ho investigator emerging, and one much more nervous and considered. We discussed afterwards how the Socialite's ineptitude in rolls during the game, and bout of cowardice seemed entirely in fitting. I'll let them formalise this next time to make the 'role playing' more explicitly a part of them choosing their investigator's actions. I was happy to let the player rather than the character guide the actions for this scenario though. (As beginners to RPGs I think baby steps are probably needed). I'd considered using Roll20, but we chose Zoom (we're already Zooming socially, and one of them is a bit resistant to trying too many new things at once). We also had a web based dice roller for all the public D100 rolls - which I made them do often. I also nudged then away from "can I roll?" to describe "what you want to do, and I'll decide if it's a roll". By the end, they'd got that. I'd downloaded some extra handouts (diary entries, photo of a character) that I found online as "Paper Chase" as written in the Starter Set actually only had one handout (a map) and I thought that sending them to them via Zoom would 1. Break up the experience for the players and 2. Give me a chance to glance at my notes. The full Investigator's Book (not the Starter Set or Keeper Book) provided me with a list of typical names from the period. These were essential when players wanted to quiz other n.p.c.s, and I'm ad-libbing people that the scenario doesn't cover. If I had one criticism of the Starter Set for keepers (aside if that first scenario being a little handout light) is that it doesn't really warn you that your ability to come up with unscripted n.p.c. stuff can (will) be called upon - and having at least a few names to hand can be the difference between a character being seamlessly integrated or bring blindingly obviously not important. ("He says his name is ... Erm... Erm... Hang on....er John" being a particularly obvious way to spot an npc as being someone insignificant). My players (as you'd hope) defied all rational logic, and took surprising decisions in where they went and what they tried - but only on a couple occasions did "Timothy" have to return to nudge them into trying something other than creeping around his house. I don't think they felt railroaded though. I was also pleased my players encountered temporary madness through sanity loss, physical injury and opposed rolls which came up naturally within the scenario. Combat wasn't required (despite the gung-ho cook's efforts), but that'll come next time I think. Anyway - the unified skills and characteristics rolls make CoC 7e (my first experience with this iteration of CoC) a doodle for new players to understand how performing a "check" works, and "hard" and "extreme" is also very easy to implement and comprehend. I really like that, and it's very easy to explain to new players as you go. I ended the session with them rolling to see if their skills they successfully used were improved - which is also intuitive and logical in its operation. All in all I'm very impressed with 7e and the Starter Set. The whole thing - including rolling up and explaining what they were expected to do took the best part of 4 hours* - which I think we all felt was time well spent. Looking forward to next time (hope my player are too!). *obviously not including my preparatory reading of the rules, keeper book, investigator book, scenario and other people's hints/comments about running this scenario.