Running The Children of Fear campaign : Keeper Advice from the writer herself, Lynne Hardy

[MOB]

By Lynne Hardy, Call of Cthulhu associate editor and author of The Children of Fear: A 1920s Campaign Across Asia.

So, you’ve taken the plunge and got hold of a copy of The Children of Fear...

Firstly: thank you!

Secondly: it’s quite a hefty campaign, and if you’ve not tackled something this size before, you might be feeling a little bit daunted right now. Or you might not! Either way, the point of this five-part series is to take you through some steps to get yourself ready for diving into this whopping great adventure; steps that can also be applied to any other large campaign you plan to tackle with your players.

Before we get to those steps though, let’s deal with a question I’ve been asked a few times:

"Is this campaign just for experienced Keepers?"

The answer is No, it isn’t, although it may take you a little bit more work to prepare for if this is your first big campaign.

The early chapters are quite “gentle” so you can practice your Keepering skills, before getting more complex the further through the campaign you go. I’ve tried to make sure that there’s lots of support and advice throughout the book for less experienced Keepers, but it’s unlikely that I’ll have covered every situation that’s going to crop up as you play. You’ll be fine, though.

As always, if there’s anything you don’t feel confident about tackling, adjust it until you are or skip it altogether. This is your campaign now! You certainly have my blessing to do whatever you need to do to it to make it work for you and your players—as long as you’re enjoying it and having fun, then it’s doing what it was created to do and that makes me happy, too.

Next: First Things First

[klecser]

Dr. Hardy really has done a lot of great modelling for Keepers in the text. Read carefully and you'll be rewarded! The text is heavily cross-referenced, especially whenever there need to be callbacks to prior parts, or reminders of future setup.

Edited June 16, 2021 by klecser

[MOB]

By Lynne Hardy, Call of Cthulhu associate editor and author of The Children of Fear: A 1920s Campaign Across Asia.

First Things First

It may sound obvious, but read through the whole book to get a good idea of what’s going on before you try to run it. This campaign has quite a few moving parts, and having an idea of the overarching plot and major characters gives you a baseline from which to develop your game.

During this reading, I suggest having a notebook beside you (or whatever equipment you usually use to make notes) so that you can jot down key points, thoughts, and queries, along with any other notes you feel you need as you go.
 

As you’re reading through, questions to think about for your campaign:

Is your version of The Children of Fear going to be a classic game or a pulp one?

• Whichever rules set you choose, make sure you’re comfortable with it before you start running the game.
• Make a note of any special rules you might need so you can refer to them quickly when the time comes.

Is your version of The Children of Fear going to be firmly rooted in the Cthulhu Mythos, are you going for a more occult storyline, or is it going to involve a fairly even mix of both?

• If you are leaning heavily into the Mythos, who’s behind everything? (Keeper Considerations, page 15)
• Do you want to decide up front who that is, or would you rather wait and see what develops through play, taking into account your players’ ideas, likes, and dislikes?

What key pieces of background information do you need to know to help you run this campaign?

• Jotting down a few bullet point notes about the various factions and their history and motivations can be quite handy and you never know when you might want or need to refer to them.

What are the big set pieces that the players will take part in, or the important revelations they’ll discover?

• Make bullet point notes to help you remember key information about each one, but don’t go overboard on that just yet—for now, you’re still just interested in the overview, not the nitty-gritty. That comes later.

Are there any bits that don’t quite make sense to you?

• Is there some additional reading you could do to help you out with these?
• Has anyone posted anything about this on an online forum, like BRP Central?

Which bits really appeal to you, or that you know your players will get a real kick out of?

• Could you enhance them to really personalise your game?

Is there anything you’re not sure your players will enjoy?

• What do you need to do to fix that?
• If you don’t know, then make use of a Session Zero to find out.

Is there anything you feel less confident about running as it’s written?

• What changes could you make to help you feel more confident about using it?

 

Next: Session Zero and Tools for a Safe Gaming Table

Edited June 16, 2021 by MOB

[MOB]

By Lynne Hardy, Call of Cthulhu associate editor and author of The Children of Fear: A 1920s Campaign Across Asia.

Session Zero

What do I mean by “Session Zero”? Well, it’s when you and your players get together to set the ground rules and expectations for your game and create the investigators you’re going to use for the campaign—if you’re not using the pre-generated characters provided.
 

Session Zeros are very helpful as they make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what they’re letting themselves in for. If you’ve played together as a group for years, you may be well aware of exactly what sort of things your players are comfortable with, but it’s never wise to make assumptions.

The Children of Fear deals with some pretty dark subject matter (Mature Content Warning, page 7), so use your Session Zero to confirm that everyone is okay with that. You don’t need to go into a lot of detail, just a broad overview: death, corpses, colonialism, potential sexual content, etc. Consent is very important in this game (Consent is Everything, page 217), so always make sure you have it.

If there are elements your players would rather avoid, having Session Zero means you now have time to adjust any plot points or encounters you need to to make sure your players (and you!) don’t get any unpleasant out-of-character surprises during the game. It’s much easier to do it beforehand than having to adjust on the fly at the table, although you may still need to do that on occasion.
 

Tools for a Safe Gaming Table

There are a lot of tools that can help you maintain a safe gaming table. An overview of some of them can be found on the No More Damsels Table Tools page. Given the nature of this campaign, I recommend you have a system in place in case your Session Zero doesn’t pick up on something that could later cause an issue for you or your players.

Besides establishing ground rules, incorporating an investigator creation session into your Session Zero is a really useful thing to do. It allows the players to work together to build a complimentary set of investigators, even if in-character they may not have met yet. It allows you, as Keeper, to guide them in developing strong hooks to bring their investigators into the campaign and, just as importantly, stay there. It can help the players get a firmer picture in their mind’s eye as to the period and the location the campaign is taking place in, and it helps you to identify and correct any misunderstandings before they become set in stone.

Having said that, if someone does create an investigator during Session Zero then decides after the first session or two that it isn’t working for them, let them create a new one now they have a much better understanding of what’s going on. Making someone stick with playing a character who they feel has nothing to contribute isn’t going to encourage them to keep coming back to your table. Be considerate, be helpful, and try to facilitate everyone’s enjoyment of the game however you can.
 

Have a good read of the Investigator Motivations section (page 17) before Session Zero, as there’s a lot of information in there on appropriate occupations and potential ways of hooking investigators into the plot. Of course, your players will undoubtedly come up with some cool ones of their own! And In the Know (page 18) contains a list a useful skills, in case your players aren’t sure where best to spend their occupational and personal interest skill points.

Next: Getting On With The Campaign

[MOB]

By Lynne Hardy, Call of Cthulhu associate editor and author of The Children of Fear: A 1920s Campaign Across Asia.

Getting on with the Campaign

You’re almost there! You’ve done the groundwork, you’ve had Session Zero, you know who the investigators are. The first actual gaming session is on its way. So what else do you need to do?

It may all seem a bit overwhelming now that you’re ready to begin playing in earnest, but the key thing to remember is that you only need to be a few steps ahead of the players each week. 

From all the effort you’ve put in so far, you know what the overall plot is, who the baddies are, and what they’re up to, but you don’t need to know absolutely every single detail of what’s going on in the bigger picture each time you sit down at the gaming table. Concentrate on what’s important for this session, while keeping everything else in the back of your mind (or in your notebook), just in case.

Session Goals

Think sensibly about how much you’re likely to achieve in a single session. Prep a bit more than you think you might get through, as some sessions may move more quickly than you anticipate. It isn’t a problem if you prep more than you use, though, as the opposite is also true! You can never entirely predict what will catch your players’ fancy and what they’ll spend their time investigating. Let them set their own pace. Of course, if they’re really faffing about and making no progress, feel free to have something happen that encourages them to get a move on!

Remember when you made bullet point notes about the set pieces and important revelations in each chapter? It’s time to revisit the one you need for this session. Read over your notes, then read over the chapter again, this time paying close attention to the key characters the investigators need to meet and the key pieces of information they need to get for them to reach those set pieces or important revelations. Are there any changes you need to make to accommodate what you discussed in Session Zero? Is there anything you could tweak to personalise it for the investigators?

For example, look at the investigators’ backstories for information you can use to help decide what they see during Mr. Bazaz-Wain’s slideshow (Visions in the Dark, page 40). 

Do any of the suggestions on page 40 work well with something on a particular investigator’s sheet, or is there something more personal you can draw upon to intrigue and confound them? That’s certainly what I did during playtesting, and tailoring things like this to your investigators helps to make your game unique. It also shows your players that you’re interested in collaborating with them in telling this story and that their input is important to how it will develop.

Next: Have Maps and Handouts Handy; Onwards to an epic journey of intrigue and horror!

 

[MOB]

By Lynne Hardy, Call of Cthulhu associate editor and author of The Children of Fear: A 1920s Campaign Across Asia.

Have Maps and Handouts Handy

Make sure you have all the handouts and maps you’re going to need this session ready and to hand. You can download these all free from Chaosium.com. They are also available free at our Itch.io page.

You might want to have extra copies so everyone can have one (this is much easier to do if you’re gaming online). 

With maps, you might prefer to have a single, larger version in the centre of the table for everyone to see, if you’re playing face-to-face. (A poster-sized version of the Investigator Map is also available at our Redbubble store)

You might even want to create your own versions of some handouts so that you can age or personalise them, or make your own props. However, don’t feel you have to, as this can create a lot more work for you. If it’s the sort of thing you enjoy, though, then go for it!

Don’t forget to keep your notebook handy in case you have to write down something that comes up in play, be that an NPC’s name or a cool idea for something you could do next session, or the answer you made up off the top of your head in response to an unexpected question. Keeping hold of that information and feeding it back into the game help to personalise it even further.

 

Onwards to an epic journey of intrigue and horror!

And that’s pretty much it—there’s really not much more you can do other than to get on with running The Children of Fear. Things might not go exactly the way you’d planned, but as long as you’ve done your preparation, you’ll be able roll with it and keep your players on their toes all the way from Peking to Tibet, and wherever else they might end up along the way!

I hope you, and they, enjoy the journey.

Lynne

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The Children of Fear is out now at Chaosium.com in full color hardcover and special leatherette edition, and PDF. Also available at DriveThruRPG.

What the Critics Say about The Children of Fear

"Obviously a labor of love, and definitely promising to take a place alongside Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express as one of the greats of Call of Cthulhu." — Never Read the Latin.

"Another campaign you are going to want... Loaded with hand-outs, pre-generated characters, new monsters, new spells, and a ton of resources, The Children of Fear is more evidence that Chaosium has cracked the code on how to make a massive, sprawling campaign accessible."— Andrew Logan Montgomery.

"A gem and an instant classic... unreservedly recommended." — Paul St John Mackintosh.

"A fantastic campaign, full of twists and more than a few gut punches. Hardy has struck a fine balance between crafting an experience ready to play as written and allowing Keepers the chance to storycraft to their own tastes." — The Gaming Gang.

Edited June 19, 2021 by MOB

[klecser]

A very useful tool:

 

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~zhuxj/readpinyin.html

 

How to pronounce pinyin names!

[Tristan Narbrough]

Thanks for all the tips on running The Children of Fear. It has been a lot of fun so far on the campaign. My only issue has been with real life intruding, and players dropping out of the campaign at various stages en route. Fortunately the core members are still there and it has been possible to introduce new characters on the epic journey. Discord communities for Chaosium and Call of Cthulhu friendly podcasts have been a boon for recruiting additional players when the numbers need boosting to make the sessions viable. The NPC descriptions on the way have been really useful when considering how to introduce new party members on the way. The other thing that has been fun, has been the chance to discuss campaign progress with other keepers, and trading notes on progress and outcomes. I really recommend finding a Keeper or two to exchange notes with regarding progress at various junctures. I love all the historical background for each chapter. There are so many ideas for further adventures in previous periods in all the brief histories for the regions traveled through.