Call of Cthulhu / Pulp Cthulhu scenario prep advice/tips

[Keeper Bolog]

I posted this question on the CoC Facebook group as well and have gotten great advice. I thought I might as well post it to the BRP Forums for more advice and even get some tips from great minds like Mike Mason and other great Keepers (There`s never enough advice imho ^^) so here goes:

 

Might be a stupid topic but what are your Call of Cthulhu/Pulp prep tips?

 

I come from D&D and there I prepped using something called "The Lazy Dungeon Master" Technique by Sly Flourish.

Any similar ways to prep for Call of Cthulhu? For D&D it was easy to write 3-5 "scenes" (for a 4 hour session) in 1-2 sentences to jump start my memory and run the game.

 

Basically the "Lazy DM" technique is:

• Write a strong start to hook your players.
• write some scenes that MIGHT occur. (ex: The PCs check out the Jarvey Farm and get jumped by the mutated brother. Shouting (Henry Roades) can be heard from somewhere)
• write 10 secrets/clues that might be revealed during the game, without exactly noting where they can be found so that you can move them. (The Bar owner is a secret Serpent-Person, etc)
• Add "fantastic locations" (this is more for D&D than for CoC, but might still work)
• note down relevant NPCs and monsters

The rest you improvise on the spot. For D&D, since its more combat heavy, this method is easy to prep games in 30minutes - 1 hour. But I find I can not prep like this for Call of Cthulhu or Pulp Cthulhu, at least not at the level I am currently - a fledgling Keeper.

What is your advice for me so that I don't sit 4-5-6-10 hours to prep "just the basics" in order to run a one shot or even a session of a campaign? (lets say a session of the Peru Chapter of Masks since I`m planning to run it soon after I corrupt my friends to Pulp Cthulhu)

 

Sorry to the folks I already spammed on the FB group if you see this post here as well 🙂

 

 

 

[greger]

I bought "The return of the lazy dungeon master" a few months back, and I really like the book myself. I do not GM D&D, so I don't prep games for it, but I am still hoping to be able to use some of the lazy techniques for CoC-games.

For CoC I find that it kinda comes down to what you really want to do. And I find that it probably will be easier to apply to something custom, rather than something from a published module.

I also think the whole thing really depends on what kind of characters the players have chosen.

But if you use thinks like the "Secrets of..." sourcebooks for CoC, or you create your own, as they call it in Tales from the Loop, "Mystery Landscape", and spend some time on that, you can easily make a bunch of small mysteries in a given city, or whatever, and let the players just start exploring. And drop small things.

I mean, does it have to be a big mystery they are trying to solve? Or could it just be that they are discovering that there is more to the world than they know?

Pick a map for a city, find a few interesting locations, and add som mystery to each of them, as you mention yourself, that one bar, where the barkeep is a serpent-person. You can write down some of his secrets. Why is he there? Why a bar? What is really in those drinks he serves?

What's the deal with the orphanage? Did some kids go missing? Why? Just... create a setting for youself. At least for the first few sessions you can see where the players are going, and then you can take those pieces and combine them into a bigger mystery to have some grand finale at some point.

"Fantastic locations" can still be fantastic in our world. I mean, some buildings brings awe when you look at them. Or.. a small house might have a secret passage leading down into a cave.

Also good to have found some intersting monsters you like, find out how they behave, etc, what attracts them. That might help you put them in some locations/story parts as well.

Sorry if this was not very coherent, I just let loose my train of thought. And, I have been thinking about this a lot myself, how to prepare for more easily played stuff, when things go "off book".

 

[Keeper Bolog]

10 hours ago, greger said:

I bought "The return of the lazy dungeon master" a few months back, and I really like the book myself. I do not GM D&D, so I don't prep games for it, but I am still hoping to be able to use some of the lazy techniques for CoC-games.

For CoC I find that it kinda comes down to what you really want to do. And I find that it probably will be easier to apply to something custom, rather than something from a published module.

I also think the whole thing really depends on what kind of characters the players have chosen.

But if you use thinks like the "Secrets of..." sourcebooks for CoC, or you create your own, as they call it in Tales from the Loop, "Mystery Landscape", and spend some time on that, you can easily make a bunch of small mysteries in a given city, or whatever, and let the players just start exploring. And drop small things.

I mean, does it have to be a big mystery they are trying to solve? Or could it just be that they are discovering that there is more to the world than they know?

Pick a map for a city, find a few interesting locations, and add som mystery to each of them, as you mention yourself, that one bar, where the barkeep is a serpent-person. You can write down some of his secrets. Why is he there? Why a bar? What is really in those drinks he serves?

What's the deal with the orphanage? Did some kids go missing? Why? Just... create a setting for youself. At least for the first few sessions you can see where the players are going, and then you can take those pieces and combine them into a bigger mystery to have some grand finale at some point.

"Fantastic locations" can still be fantastic in our world. I mean, some buildings brings awe when you look at them. Or.. a small house might have a secret passage leading down into a cave.

Also good to have found some intersting monsters you like, find out how they behave, etc, what attracts them. That might help you put them in some locations/story parts as well.

Sorry if this was not very coherent, I just let loose my train of thought. And, I have been thinking about this a lot myself, how to prepare for more easily played stuff, when things go "off book".

 

Solid advice! Thanks a lot!

I will mix and match all the advice I get to find a good way for myself to prep for a game.

I plan to run Masks of Nyarlathothep this year and I want to run it well, to do it justice. So i`m in a bit of a pressure spot to not f*ck up the aweseome campaign with my stupid prep/lack of it

[greger]

Well, Sly does write that when running published campaigns, you should just care about what benefits your game, and leave out the rest.
For running such a big campaign, you will not get away with not reading it all, and know what happens. That is for sure. Cause there are tons of clues and info that, if missed, can make logical problems for the whole game, I guess.

So, read it, and probably make some notes/mindmaps, etc, to see that you have the essentials down. The important points.
To make it easier to run at the table. It might not be important what one of the NPCs look like, so you don't have to remember that, but the fact that he has a certain book might be relevant. Etc.

 

 

[Mike M]

Prepping scenarios to run them:

I run three types of scenarios:

A) one I'm writing - so play testing ideas.

B) one I have commissioned but not edited yet - so play testing to check the plot and flow works and if there are any info gaps

C) one already published - running for fun

I'll focus on C, as that's the most likely 'scenario' for most people.

For me, I read the scenario before play to ensure I understand the plot and who the key players are. While reading, I either use a pencil and star/highlight key events or clues I want to use in the game - or I note these with a page no. reference in a notebook.  If using a notebook, I might jot down the key NPC names and put a G for good or a V for villain next to them as an aid memoire. For most occasions, that's my prep. CoC scenarios are formatted to flow pretty easily from the page - so I just run from the book - each location or scene is more or less self contained, so in play, I just focus on that bit of the book and then move on the following scene/location/event accordingly. 

For more complex scenarios/campaigns, my prep may include noting down the probably progression (i.e. scene/location/event in a rough order - using the books title of the scene/location/event or using letters (A, B, C, etc.). Thus - Scene A might lead to B and C, so when playing - I know the flow, but can adapt according to the players. This noting down is basically a way I find useful to help remember things.

Basically, to sum up, I do little prep other than reading the scenario (or the bit of it that I guess will be covered in tonight's game) and highlighting the bits I don't want to forget (I find I rarely need to refer back to the notes - its the process of jotting them down that helps me to remember them). I don't have time to waste on over-prepping - I did it in the past and I found it's just  not necessary for me. I ignore the desire to add extra details from outside of a scenario (i.e do more research) as 7e scenarios tend to have what's needed to run them (finding more detail is often a desire to know more, but isn't actually required). 

That's me, but your Cthulhu may vary. 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Mike M

[Keeper Bolog]

2 hours ago, greger said:

Well, Sly does write that when running published campaigns, you should just care about what benefits your game, and leave out the rest.
For running such a big campaign, you will not get away with not reading it all, and know what happens. That is for sure. Cause there are tons of clues and info that, if missed, can make logical problems for the whole game, I guess.

So, read it, and probably make some notes/mindmaps, etc, to see that you have the essentials down. The important points.
To make it easier to run at the table. It might not be important what one of the NPCs look like, so you don't have to remember that, but the fact that he has a certain book might be relevant. Etc.

 

 

Yes, will definitely read the whole of the campaign so I understand all the little details that need to be forshadowed.

[Keeper Bolog]

1 hour ago, Mike M said:

Prepping scenarios to run them:

I run three types of scenarios:

A) one I'm writing - so play testing ideas.

B) one I have commissioned but not edited yet - so play testing to check the plot and flow works and if there are any info gaps

C) one already published - running for fun

I'll focus on C, as that's the most likely 'scenario' for most people.

For me, I read the scenario before play to ensure I understand the plot and who the key players are. While reading, I either use a pencil and star/highlight key events or clues I want to use in the game - or I note these with a page no. reference in a notebook.  If using a notebook, I might jot down the key NPC names and put a G for good or a V for villain next to them as an aid memoire. For most occasions, that's my prep. CoC scenarios are formatted to flow pretty easily from the page - so I just run from the book - each location or scene is more or less self contained, so in play, I just focus on that bit of the book and then move on the following scene/location/event accordingly. 

For more complex scenarios/campaigns, my prep may include noting down the probably progression (i.e. scene/location/event in a rough order - using the books title of the scene/location/event or using letters (A, B, C, etc.). Thus - Scene A might lead to B and C, so when playing - I know the flow, but can adapt according to the players. This noting down is basically a way I find useful to help remember things.

Basically, to sum up, I do little prep other than reading the scenario (or the bit of it that I guess will be covered in tonight's game) and highlighting the bits I don't want to forget (I find I rarely need to refer back to the notes - its the process of jotting them down that helps me to remember them). I don't have time to waste on over-prepping - I did it in the past and I found it's just  not necessary for me. I ignore the desire to add extra details from outside of a scenario (i.e do more research) as 7e scenarios tend to have what's needed to run them (finding more detail is often a desire to know more, but isn't actually required). 

That's me, but your Cthulhu may vary. 

Thanks for the advice Mike!

I also had my fair share of over-prepping when i started playing D&D and now that i`m a new Keeper i find that i fell in that trap again.

I`ll just try to follow your advice (and that of the others ofc) and focus on whats important in the moment. Opposed to D&D, CoC7e scenarios are indeed pretty much ready to run out of the book. I`ll just probably find a way to note stuff down on a piece of paper or my ipad to "feel prepared" because most of the time I dont really look at what I write in my notes, it just a memory jogger sort of thing.

I think i`m always going to try and find the most eficient way to prep so I dont waste tons of hours doing unnecesary work, a very slippery slope that I think i`ll overcome only by playing and playing and playing. 4-5 Years of D&D have sure helped me with my prep and I bet the sheer quality of the CoC Campaigns/Scenarios will help me even more to narrow my Keepering to an even finer art.

Thanks for your very helpful input and to all of Chaosium for the great work in Scenario/Campaign design. The books are truly best in class compared to other products.