Grimmshade

The highest is Cthulhu Mythos 4%, Sanity 95%. That's after the first two chapters of Masks of Nyarlathotep, and a couple of other published adventures I used as filler. The Sanity rewards for each adventure have outweighed the loss by a lot for some PC's. (Plus the ability to "self help" during downtime.)

I don't really want to punish players/PC's for having a high Sanity. Mythos skill limiting Sanity is the mechanic basically handling your observations (that Sanity and the Cthulhu Mythos don't play well together.) I've had the idea of adding some more Mythos tomes that need skimming, and possibly a spell or two that need casting. It wouldn't make much sense for them to put the person with low Sanity on the case, so if they begin having high Sanity PC's read tomes and cast spells, that's some automatic Sanity loss, and probably some Mythos skill gain. It may all balance out. I guess story -wise it does make sense that their confidence (and sanity) against the Mythos would be bolstered after having some success against them so far in the campaign.

I've been playing Call of Cthulhu since 1st edition, but ion the last two campaigns I've come across a new "problem." Some of the PC's (about half, so 2 or 3) gave gotten pretty lucky with Sanity rolls, and this the Sanity rewards at the end of adventures have taken their Sanity to max or near max levels. Now they never fail a Sanity check, and since must Sanity losses are 0/something or 1/something, they are never in much danger of any great sanity threat. At this point it feels like it will never change. I don't want to suddenly start forcing more or harder checks, because the other 2 PC's are the ones who will suffer the most for it. Any suggestions? We still have a lots of Masks of Nyarlathotep to get through.

I only use the KO rule when PC's (or NPC's) attack from surprise. Otherwise it's normal combat rules. (I mostly play with the Pulp Cthulhu rules, but I use this system with either)

Hmmm.... Since we are playing Masks of Nyarlathotep I do like the idea of tossing in another Nyarlathotep connection and form!

With pre written scenarios this is definitely the case. I've always wanted to run a slow burn campaign with the PC's inheriting a house, finding tomes, reading times, and unlocking puzzles over the course of a year or so game time. Non believer would work great in that situation. I've had it with week in a few scenarios where the PC's find tomes and skim them as non believers, and then find the monster.

I've been playing since 1st edition, so I'll give this a go! (Doesn't mean I'm 100% correct!) Skimming always gives all available spells in my games. I run more pulp style games generally, but most of the big spells area going to be pretty hard for a PC to just instantly pull off anyway, and most PC's shouldn't want to summon Azathoth. A full reading can give other benefits is your decide it does. Recommended benefits include relevant skill improvement checks, etc. The old 5e Keeper's Compendium has some excellent examples of this. In 7e, it doesn't really matter what is contained in a tome. If the player makes the roll, they get the info from the book. It's basically the same explanation as Cthulhu Mythos in general. A PC goes insane from some a Deep One. They gain 5% Cthulhu Mythos from the experience. They see tracks from a Ghoul and make the 5% Mythos roll and know some info about ghouls, with the explanation being that once your mind is open to the Mythos your have access to forgotten/ forbidden knowledge. If a tome was known for sure to have the info the investigator was looking for, I'd probably just let them have the info after the study. As for tomes in general, I give as much little details as possible, as it all adds to the Lovecraft-iness of the experience. Once an Investigator sees a Mythos monster and loses sanity from it, they can't really be a non-believer any more. Non-believer is basically a person who reads Mythos books and thinks they are all interesting fantasy, until they see a Dark Young in the forest and all their past reading comes crashing down on them. Hope all that helps!

That's what surprised me the most; it doesn't look like the PC lost any sanity for outright murder. I don't think I'd force insanity/delusions on the PC at this point, but next time they are insane I'd definitely create some delusions about that murder. Have the PC see the man in public, maybe receive a phone call from him, or see his face in a fire, etc.

A flow chart diagram would be a good start. For bigger changes, a simpler set up, and maybe less possible spaces on the chase track. Maybe even everyone basically encountering the same obstacles at the same time, with a number for distance between the pursuer and pursued. This way the line with dots on it would be less important. Options for common actions of both parties would make it easier for situations like Keeper Bolog mentions, where players don't know what to do. The core is great, it just needs to be streamlined to make it easy to get into, and easier to know what you're options are and how to play them.

Dreamlands is definitely what I'm going with. (Unfortunately, it will mostly be out of canon Dreamlands, as I find Lovecraft's dream stories not very compelling, and thus I know almost nothing about them.) The puzzle "box" is a key to a dream land that was found / formed by some fringe scientists, who now worship some Mythos entity there. The scientists are now the cenobite-like beings. (Again, I'm unfamiliar with which Mythos entities exist or hold sway in the Dreamlands.)

I just used Mi-Go in a side adventure, but I like some of the other suggestions in that thread as well as your idea that they may be very warped and misguided cultists. I might go with a corner of the dreamlands thing, with the puzzle being the key. The cenobites are other searchers who have solved the puzzle and been "enlightened."

I find the set up a bit too gamey / difficult. I think the system itself is mostly sound and fun. We had a real good experience with it in Two Headed Serpent, but I find myself dreading it a bit in Masks. The last one I ran ended up basically just being a combat, because all the players characters just ended up moving a little and shooting. It also kind of sucks that whichever pursuers don't roll good enough at the beginning are basically instantly left behind. Again, I mostly like them, and I feel they can be fun and exciting, but they can also get a little time consuming and rough if you're not perfectly clear on the rules. I wish they ran a little more like chases in the Blade Runner RPG, which are basically the same but smoother and faster, if a bit more interpretive. EDIT: to answer one of the questions asked, I do show the chase tracker to the players, and we place miniatures on it to help visualize and track it.

In my campaign, I've had one PC acquire an item similar to the puzzle box in the Hellraiser films. I'm looking for suggestions for the Lovecraftian equivalent or replacement for the cenobites. I was originally thinking the Elder Things, but they don't quite fit what I'm looking for. Any ideas?

Oh man, I'll be buying that!

I agree that the summoner should also take Sanity loss for seeing the creature summoned.

I love looking at illustrations of the mythos creatures, and using them in game. I bought Peterson's Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, but I really don't like most of the illustrations. They didn't even try to get most of them story accurate. I really like the illustrations in The Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, but it's not in print anymore. Are there any other books (besides the RPG books) that have good Mythos illustrations?

In my opinion, the table is wrong. Cthulhu Invictus agrees with the example (and the text about a "draw") in saying that a shield user fighting back that fails to achieve at least an equal success does not gain protection.

Will there be a Gaslight Keeper's Screen? I'm addicted to GM screens.

Awesome! Will you be including most of the old Gaslight equipment guide? (I was about to purchase it when the price shot up.)

Agree about the adventures. I've rarely used published adventures in games in my 40+ years of RPGs, but I've used loads of the great adventures out there for 7e. I use the system for non-Mythos roleplaying too. And yeah, there are some fantastic prop sets! (As well as sound sets).

Looking forward to getting them! I think they will add a great option to our Masks campaign. This is the kind of product I love to own; there's something about cards and other fiddly bits.

Welcome back! I've been playing Call of Cthulhu since the 1st edition, and I think you'll be real happy with 7e. It's the best edition yet imo, and my favorite rpg overall.

I have downloaded the free set of props. I'll use them for the first adventure and see if the players enjoy them. Thanks!

This is 100% truth. I will be starting Masks in 3 months, and I know it will be the best campaign ever because I have an entire box of movie quality props for it. If they made a second box of even more Masks props, I would buy it immediately. I'll also be buying the digital props pack soon.

These look great! I'll probably order them for my Masks campaign. The only thing I'm noticing is that several seem to last much longer than a bout of madness normally would. Edit: Went ahead and ordered the deck. I figure I can always remove the ones I don't want in there. I can also sleeve them and add some custom bouts on paper (behind the card back).