Mask of nyarlathotep timeskip

[Elcid321]

Hello there everyone, i noticed that in the MoN campaign, after the Peru prologue, there’s a 4 years timeskip before the New York chapter, and i been wanting to ask, how do you deal with such timeskip? Specifically, player character improvement? I’m asking because if either me or my brother where to run this campaign, we probably won’t put another adventure during the timeskip. 

[ragr]

I didn't put anything in the gap between Peru and New York. I asked the players to explain whether and how they'd stayed in touch with JE in the intervening period and what they'd be up to in respect of their various professions. I then asked them to use the Training rules on pg98 of the Keeper's Book to mechanise any improvements they'd been working on. It worked out okay and when they met up again prior to the fateful meeting with JE it felt like things had changed a little with them but the shared experience of Peru remained; we staged a reunion dinner scene. 

[notwilbur]

I would also recommend some sort of short session with the players to create a summary of what each investigator has been doing in the 4 year interval. This can be free form but make some notes. Add these summaries to their overall character backstories.

The Keeper than work with those before starting the campaign proper to just run through each chapter and see if there any links that can be made - without forcing it - to any of the NPCs that will be coming up. For example: An ex cop having a NYPD contact or New York Times or Miskatonic - you get the idea.

Peppering a few of these contacts and linking them up to investigators backstories will really help to make things run smoothly and allow the keeper to drop in hints, clues and tragically replacements so as to move things along without appearing heavy handed.