Ema Nymton

7th Edition Starter. A great entry point. It's a perfect introduction to the system with great scenarios that grow in complexity. The narratives are strong and they really help you and your players learn the mechanics and engage with the storytelling. They ease both the Keeper and the players into the game beautifully and give you a lot of playtime. If you enjoy your journey through this set then inevitably you'll want to pick up the Keeper rulebook. If you're going to then run you own scenarios you'll probably want the Investigator handbook aswell for additional setting info. But if you prefer the published scenarios, Doorways to Darkness would be a good next step. Best Ema

Masks is not written as Pulp. However it can easily be run as Pulp. The latest version of the campaign has excellent guidance in this regard and frequent sidebars with Keeper advice and additional information for Pulp play.

I remember when I first started out as a Keeper having similar thoughs. When I first looked at doing a scenario with a structured timeframe I was quite nervous about how to handle it effectively. My advice, and what I would say first, is to cut your teeth (gain experience) on one shots that aren't timescale dependent and get to grips with the overall gameplay and mechanics as well as you and your group's playstyle. Once you're comfortable playing, the rest will start to come quite naturally. To expand though... We always just try to be reasonably realistic. Most scenarios and campaign's give you good maps for regions and show you distance measurements. Which allows you to ballpark how long a local, or even global, journey will take using different modes of transport. With actual gameplay, Joe's advice (above) on Library Use rolls giving an indication of time spent is spot on. In general, all research activities will take a significant amount of time. Just try and place yourself in a basic research situation; going to the local Library and looking for information on a topic you are familiar with is still going to take an hour or so, once you factor in searching for the relevent book and then actually flicking through, reading pages, comprehending and (presumably) note-taking. Researching something new is going to take considerably longer. Consider what the information is that your INVs are going to find when successful. If it's just one sentence of info then maybe it's a few short hours of scouring the books. If it's a good number of bullet points or paragraphs it's going to take considerably longer. You don't need to role play all of that. We often have a quick interaction with a clerk or librarian, a bit of a description of the building, to help provide mood, tone and context, and then roll for the result and summarise their time researching. What happened to make them take so long? How did they get lucky? Try and make it character relevant - it all adds to the story and in making things more personal and immersive. Something similar can be said for conversations. Whilst, when you roleplay conversations, these often last a relatively finite amount of gameplay time (totally dependant on context, significance, and play style, of course), the conversation in real life would probably have gone on much longer, especially when you consider in any other factors that may have been summarised - such as being guided to a certain room, sitting and sharing drinks or food etc. Think how long this conversation would realistically have taken and ballpark that as the time taken. For peace of mind, I'd say use that as a principle for everything your players do. Ballpark. Ballpark how long a journey, activity or conversation would realistically have taken if it was played out for real and use that as your progression of time. We are now 2 years into playing Masks of Nyarlathotep and timekeeping is perhaps more relevant and important in this campaign than it is in one-shots, as there is a set deadline for INVs to discover and fight against. With that in mind, after each activity I always suggest to the players how much time has passed and the current game time. Its a good way to check that they're ok with how time is being managed and provides them an opportunity to counter if they wish (though they never have). Timekeeping isn't something you need to sweat over. If you're unsure, ask the players. Make them an integral part of the process. If nothing else, it will help to make them feel even more engaged with the narrative and responsible for their INVs actions. Just be reasonable and realistic in your estimations on timeframe and you can't go wrong. But, as always, each group is different, and you will find you naturally fall into a rhythm and understanding with your players. Your play style and game management will develop organically over time. Just enjoy playing and telling stories. Hope that helps. Very best, Ema

I think that's a good take. Utilising the Starting box for Start of the Game session/day would certainly work. I agree about the old Sanity Block, it had its benefits and my players certainly prefer it. Not only is it easier to mark and track, the scope of it visually had a big impact, as they could see a more visceral representation of how their minds was being affected and crumbling. The new one comes accross a little sanitary. (For us at least. Each to their own of course, and it's good to have options). Thanks Klecser 👍

The updated CoC character sheets generate an Insane figure which is 1/5 of the starting sanity entry. Am I missing something or misunderstanding something, because the rules state that (p.156 rulebook) Indefinite Insanity occurs on losing a fifth or more of current Sanity points in one game “day”. Therefore outside of the start of a game (or rather the first game day), this figure is potentially/likely going to be obsolete for the remainder of the scenario if a character has lost sanity going into 'day 2'. Doesn't this make that box confusing, especially to new players, as the constant presence of that figure will continually imply that Indefinite insanity occurs only when losing 1/5 of starting sanity?

p85 of the handouts pdf - 1925 calendar. MAY starts on Saturday 1st, but this should be Friday 1st. All other months seem correct. Sorry this isn't in the old errata thread, but it seems to be locked. ps. My players are in love with this campaign. It certainly deserves all the praise it has received over the years.

The Mythos rating is used when completing a full study of a Tome. When a full study is completed, if the investigator's Cthulhu Mythos rating is lower than the tome's Mythos rating, they gain the full CMF number as Cthulhu Mythos points. If the investigator's Cthulh Mythos rating is equal to or higher than the tome's Mythos rating, then they only gain the lower CMI number. See Keeper Rulebook p.174 In addition: The Mythos rating is the figure rolled against when using the tome as reference material. This can only happen once a full study has been completed however. The Investigator first spends 1D4 hours searching the tome, before rolling a D100 against the tome's Mythos rating to see if they were successfull. See Keeper Rulebook p.175 Hope that helps!

I believe you take the fumble rules as written to apply to sanity rolls as well. Keeper Rulebook p.91: Fumble: the roll is 100. If the roll required for success is less than 50, a roll of 96 or over is a fumble.

p.36 Keeper Rulebook "Note that each skill has a number in brackets next to it on the investigator sheet: this is the base chance of success in that skill, and any points allocated to that skill are added to this base number." Think of it like a natural ability. Some things we can do at a basic or intuitive level without study. e.g. Anyone can pick up a gun, point and fire. But everything gets better with study and/or practice.

Even if your action is forfeit, you can still react. Though if it is further firearms attacks, the best you can do is continue to dodge (dive for cover). Some points from the Keeper Rulebook that may help you: Diving for cover refers to a firearm attack. Attacks with a firearm are not opposed (KR p112). Diving for cover makes you harder to hit and so the initiator receives a penalty die (KR p113). You are still 'reacting' to an attack/s and so the outnumbering rule as defined by Mike above would apply to subsequent attacks against your Investigator. (Outnumbered for ref is KR p108) In addition (under optional rules), be aware that diving for cover may leave you prone, in which case (KR p127): attacks made against a prone character gain one bonus die, and (KR p128) those targeting a prone character with a firearm get one penalty die (ignore this if at point blank-range). Hope that helps you. Best, Ema

My. This is a thing of beauty.

In general the need to call for a Spot Hidden or wait for a prompt from the Investigators will be situational. Asking the players to make Spot Hidden rolls can break the mystery if you're not careful, as it automatically tells them that there is something to discover. If you've just described a room and then an Investigator says they'd like to search the room/desk/bookcase etc and there is the potential for them to find a clue, then the response would be "ok, make a Spot Hidden". If the Investigators are being tailed or watched as they're walking the streets during a regular activity, then (unless they've been provided narrative motivation) they are unlikely to always ask if there's anything suspicious they can see. At this point the Keeper would ask for a Spot Hidden. Always consider immersion. If the players can lead the way and you can react to their decisions with the appropriate rolls, they'll feel a greater sense of success. Although, if it feels like they're about to miss something important, then you could give them a last minute opportunity by asking the roll yourself. I hope that helps.

In addition to the grenade/dynamite example, Keeper Rulebook p406 has guidance for damage based on radius of effect: 2 yards, 3 yards, etc.: Damage radius of explosion in yards; at up to double the range, the damage is halved. At up to triple the range, the damage is quartered. Beyond that damage is ignored. p.405 lists the most common explosive devices and relevent dam/radius

Mike did a post on this not too long ago. Forum Link They added a plain text version of the handouts to the Masks pdf download pack. If you purchased your original hard copy or pdf from the Chaosium site you should be able to download it from your account. Outside of that, perhaps someone in the community can share the info you're looking for. Sorry I can't help further. Stay sane. 🦑 Ema

Thanks T.O. Completely agree with allowing the investigators imaginations to be an integral part of the narrative process. And I'd always say this is a key aspect of successfully running any scenario. Less is often more. However, in this instance, the eggs are so integral to the story, being regularly manipulated by NPC's and the Investigstors, that not only should the investigators be able to imagine them, as Keeper, I too need to be able to visualise them, so I can appropriately incorporate them into the action and story. I'm more than happy to make this up. But the scenario clearly tries to describe 'something'. It just doesn't do it well (imo) and I'm interested to understand what it is trying to get across. How have other people imagined these eggs, or interpreted them to look?

Ok. So I'm running Ties That Bind (from Doors to Darkness) for my group this week. Overall, a relatively straight forward scenario. Now, I'm not sure why, but for the life of me I can't get my head around what these 'rocks' found in the fountain look like. I find the description given in the scenario both overly vague and confusing. (4 layers of bananas??) And comparing the description of them to the artwork just confused me more. Can any kind soul out there please give me a clearer description of how you thought they looked. Size, shape, number etc. Thanks in advance. Ema

Best thing that ever happened to me and my group of friends. Many years of happiness awaits. Enjoy. Welcome to the madness.

Keeper rulebook p.94 in relation to the investigator development phase: "(Roll 1d100 for skill checks) If the player rolls higher than the current skill number, or the result is over 95, then the investigator improves in that skill: roll 1D10 and immediately add the result to the current skill points. Skills may rise above 100% by this method." Rolling 95+ is low on the odds table, meaning it's unlikely to happen frequently. But the rules say you're ok. There is also a suggestion in character creation p.48 (optional rules) that you don't allow starting stats to be too high, so as not to unbalance the game. (75 is the given example). Hope that helps.

This is my understanding too. One attempt (plus a push) - per injury (i.e. another attempt can be made once a separate incident of damage is taken) When dying - one attempt per round to stabilise. (Success giving a temporary hit point, failure requiring a CON roll at the end of the round to stay alive) ----- The Combat Damage Flow Chart (Core, p.413) is a great aid for this. Just remember that each pass through the chart is from a single incident. i.e. Only pass through the 'Damage from a Single Wound' chart once. You can't pass through it again until you once more take Damage From a Single Wound. Same for 'Hit Points Fall to Zero', except here you can enter a loop of healing attempts depending upon the rolls.

I'm a relatively new keeper for CoC (approx 7mnth) and have only played 7e. I can totally see the issues with Chases... on paper/in theory, and I was also reluctant to run them. I think, like many others, the impression given by the rulebook is that immersion will be broken by the setup process and mechanical nature of running them. However I have now utilised the system with two separate groups (in the majority as part of the Genius Loci scenario), doing both foot and car chases and I can actually confirm what many others have concluded... Chases play far far better than they read in the book. They were actually very enjoyable, especially when everyone participates in the story telling of the events. Personally, I found the key was prepping the initial 'math' in advance. Having everyone's dex and mov rates written down, just asking for the CON roll and narrating the results whilst assigning the placements of Pursuers and Fleers. Trying to streamline this initial setup, as a Keeper, so the mechanics of it wasn't a distraction to the players... That's my suggestion and what worked for me. There's a few comments on the chase system throughout the forums. Now that people have been running them for a longer period of time, I'd be interested to hear any further thoughts the community has on the topic, especially those who were initially reluctant to run them and subsequently have given it a try. Can I also add, that as a relative 'newbie', I think this community is excellent. I wish I'd come to the party sooner. I have never enjoyed RPGs as much, or had as much fun with my friends as I have since discovering this. Thanks everyone.