Time to Harvest - Chapter 1 - How Long for Everyone?

[Jwfortune]

Last night I ran chapter one of a time to harvest for my game group and it went very well for the group...for me...it went fairly well, but I am still adjusting to running CoC v Pathfinder adventures.  They are so different.

We got the entire chapter done in about 3.5 hours.  I get the feeling that this is faster than most groups, but I am not sure.  I had a really hard time with a couple of things.

• Roll Playing so many NPCs - I didn't really do the students on the trip any justice.  The only NPCs I roll played much at all were Robert Blaine, Justin Trent, Sheriff, and Cutter.  The rest said maybe one or two things the entire evening.
• I had a really hard time letting the game run free.  I kept the story going as written in the book and didn't have the courage to make stuff up and adjust to the PCs.  And I am not sure why exactly.  I have run Pathfinder adventures for a few years now and have no trouble there, but with this, there was so many facts and encounters I wanted to make sure I hit that I kept it on rails.  The players didn't feel inhibited and enjoyed it, so it was no problem for them, but I need to learn to run differently I think.
• Although I had the awesome summary time line another Keeper posted here for us, I had a hard time remembering everything I was supposed to do with all of the characters.  I forgot about the reporters picture and his story, and the investigators didn't really question him, so his stuff was totally skipped over.

Although it doesn't necessarily feel complicated, I am still finding my comfort zone running the wide open, story heavy adventures presented by CoC.  I should say we are all having fun, I just don't feel in command yet.  I read through chapter one several times, I outlined it, and I read through the player provided summary, but still was a little off.  

Let me know if anyone has suggestions for how to prepare for a CoC adventure or what you do to stay in control of your story.  It is fun, but I am always striving to improve.

 

[Ron McClung]

I am going to be running it at MACE in Charlotte, NC (November 11-13) as well as Episode 2.  I am just the opposite - NEVER have run an organized play game in my life and never wanted to until Cults of Chaos came out.  I have been very relieved to see that it is way more sandboxy then standard OP games.  Yes, the organization needs a little work but in general, I don't feel constricted.  My feeling is that the purpose of CoC is more about getting people to play the new edition and less about the OP side of it.  I don't feel constrained to guarantee the same experience between two tables.  So I feel a little more free to improvise.

I think the key to this is understanding the core gimmick behind the plot and making sure any improvisation is in the spirit of that gimmick.  If you stay true to that, you are good to go.

I don't feel that all the key points (photo, the child's poem and picture in the school house) are required to come out.  If the players pursue it, sure, but if they don't, it's there loss.  As long as they get the general idea that something is going on in Cobb's Corner, you are good.

[Nevarre]

I recently ran episode 1 over the course of two evenings with 4 players - each session came out at about 3 hours 45 minutes.  

This included giving out the pre-gens and asking the players to work on relationships, backgrounds and connections - that probably took an hour.  We weren't in any rush and invested time understanding the NPCs etc. 

 

[Mike M]

Different groups run scenarios at different rates - I tend to run quickly, others take much more time. Don't sweat it - as long as you are having fun then that's all okay.

The town is a sandbox - most groups will miss things - this is also okay. They get the chance to revist the town later in the campaign so there's opportunity to revist missed NPCs/locations etc.

Remembering stuff - go through the scenario and bullet point out the key important stuff in a notebook. Have a section on the NPCs - 3-4 bullets for each, same for the locations, and also have "key plot" list too - use these to actually run the game - you refer to the bullets (these remind you of things) and you go from there (saves having to read chunks of text to find a key point in the middle of the game. I sometimes put page references next to bullet points - so I can quickly look up things if needed.

Roleplaying NPCs - sounds like you did well. There are a lot of NPCs, but most can fade into the background - they only come "alive" when the PCs interact with them - allowing you space to roleplay them as needed.

Improvisation - this comes with experience - you'll find yourself doing it before you know it.

Sounds like you made a great start.

[caddy1071]

Heh - mine went crazy long - I'm a sucker for good roleplay.  Aside from the regular encounters - they VERY briefly went to the library and the church and pretty much only interacted with the doctor to get the vampire rumor - they did a bit of a side trek first excursion into the sugar maple forest and got a bit of a beating from some zoogs for a session...  With about 3 - 3 1/2 hour sessions, geese had to be about 8 sessions or so?  It was a GREAT run, and the players are chomping at the bit for more - really looking forward to Ep 2. When two "dead" characters walked into the Sheriff's Office with Blaine the players brains were doing flips. Great stuff....

Tty!
Cory
 

[morganhua]

I had a seating chart for the Truck and Car going to Cobb's Corners and asked the players where they were sitting.  Since the drive is several hours long, it gave an opportunity for some role play as the PCs and NPCs got to chat with each other on the long drive. I got the NPCs to gossip about the previous failed expedition and that certainly got the PCs concerned. Trent's weirdness didn't help either.

I did put Blaine next to Clarissa. Gibbons and Higgins are close friends, so they're together in the same car/truck.

I put Blaine next to Clarissa in the backseat of the car. This leaves the front two seats of the car open for NPCs and PCs.

I put Gibbons and Higgins in the back of the truck. This leaves the front two seats of the truck (truck cab) and the back of the truck open for NPCs and PCs.

My players never questioned the Newspaper guy either and even after a quick tour of the town by the friendly Deputy, they rarely went back into town. They did talk to the school teacher, the preacher and his wife, the diner's kid who was making creepy tree drawings, and the librarian and her "helpful" assistant (who they ironically trusted over the librarian).

[L Kelly]

Just completed Day 1 with my group. Like Jwfortune, apart from initial introductions are Arkham I underplayed the other students. The players distrust Blaine and Cutter. I intend to write up a summary and flesh out the students a bit round the campfire after Cutter has left. Apart from Cutter and the Doctor they haven't really interacted with anyway in the town apart from ordering dinner. Still dreams and Day 2 to come. I need to decide whether to roleplay the interviews or summarise the stories, I am concious of the downtime for the survey team members

[Matt Ryan]

I felt the same way in episode 1. There are a lot of NPCs and a lot of plot hooks to get right for it all to make sense. I figured that was the nature of a mystery, and my anxiety was that if I screwed up then the rest of the story wouldn't make sense. We spent some time in town, but not that much overall.

I got a lot looser in episode 2, having grown more comfortable with the large number of NPCs and figuring that however the players might derail the story - and they did often! - I could get it somewhat back on track.

I should also say that I'd never run a Call of Cthulhu game until A Time to Harvest. Lots of experience with other games, but no CoC. Now, I play it all the time. I've even suspended by regular HeroQuest game in favor of CoC.

[caddy1071]

On 12/15/2016 at 4:09 PM, Matt Ryan said:

I should also say that I'd never run a Call of Cthulhu game until A Time to Harvest. Lots of experience with other games, but no CoC. Now, I play it all the time. I've even suspended by regular HeroQuest game in favor of CoC.

That, sir, is impressive!  Kudos to you!  With the amount of characters and town background being throw at you at the same time, as well as not being too familiar with CoC game structure, I gotta say you deserve a medal!   Great job picking it up and with my endearment of CoC 7th, I take no small point of pride in hearing your story and being in the Cult of Chaos and spreading the word - I absolutely love the improvements and new mechanics of this story telling engine and look forward to many folks getting the experience.

tty!
Cory

[Coolmew]

It took about 14 hours total for my group to finish Chapter 1, including intro and character creation.  We probably could have done it in 11 hours without losing anything important, but less than that and we would have been cutting out good stuff.

[commandercrud]

3 sessions, about 4 hours each. same for chapter 2. chapters 3-4 were 2 sessions each, chapters 5-6 both done in just one session. this was the first these players had any experience with Cthulhu, none were even familiar with Lovecraft, and were hardcore powergaming D&D players, so once they decided it was "best" not to look at anything or talk to anyone, it started moving much more quickly.