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How I Start 'Call of Cthulhu' - part 2, The First Investigation

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Last time I arrived at a wish list for the start of my CoC mini campaign.  I will have to design a short introductory investigation to include as much of this list as possible. (This, by the way, is why I am doing this blog.  The thought processes are pretty much what I am going through as I design the investigation, and getting it down helps me organise my thoughts.  I also thought it might be interesting to other GMs to see how I do it.  Please feel free to share your techniques in the comments). The Wish List Last time I came up with what I wanted to include in the first scenario; # using Arkham as a base. # the investigators might not know each other. # they may be from out of town. # something will draw them together and force them to work against a Mythos threat. # they may well be observed in this by someone who later pulls strings and brings other mysteries to their attention. The location of Arkham is easy.  I have the sourcebook (plus umpt...
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Terra Mare - A New Campaign - First Thoughts

As you may know I recently (well, end of 2018) finished a very long running 4th Edition D&D campaign.  If you missed it, there are a series of articles on my other blog, starting here . As we fancied a break from fantasy role playing, that group has gone on to play Call of Cthulhu, and there are blogs on here going over the process of constructing the first investigation starting here. I am also running a mostly different group of players through the D&D 5th Edition starter set Lost Mine of Phandelver at my FLGS, and we are coming to the end of that adventure, so I'll need something to run afterwards.  We had considered continuing with the characters, possibly going on to something like Storm King's Thunder, probably adapted for Mystara and starting at chapter 3.  But several of the players want the opportunity to start from scratch, perhaps choosing a little differently for their characters.  Although the Lost Mine set includes pregens and each has its l...
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How I Start 'Call of Cthulhu' - part 1, History and Background

I'm running Call of Cthulhu again This is a brief look at how I plan to begin a short series of Call of Cthulhu investigations.  I'm trying to be a lot more organised in how I go about things, so this is helping me get my thoughts together for the game. My History with Call of Cthulhu I read H.P. Lovecraft long before there was ever a game based on his works.  In fact, I was introduced to the Mythos by a fellow D&D player when I was in sixth form.  Not surprisingly, elements of the Mythos crept into (infected?) our games back then, but I don't think any of us thought of running games set around Lovecraft's time or in his world. A few years later I was at uni, and one of my home gaming group began entertaining me with letters about his CoC games.  (Dave, we miss you).  It sounded great fun, especially as he presented a lot of them as letters from his character, I don't believe he made it off R'lyeh (Shadows of Yog-Sothoth).  I bought the second ed...
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Welcome

Welcome. Welcome, whether you've stumbled across this or if you're a reader of my ' Periodic Painting Table ' blog, come inside, pull up a seat, grab a drink and make yourself comfortable . Thrice welcome. Why am I doing another Blog? It has become obvious to  me recently that I have a bit to say about how I go about designing adventures for RPGs.  I spent a lot of virtual ink recently on the other blog ( starting here ), going on (and on) about my long running 4th Edition D&D campaign, and, while I wanted to say the stuff, perhaps it didn't belong there (apart from the post about how I crafted for the games).  Hence this new enterprise. What is it all about? What can you expect to find on here?  Well probably a lot less than on my other blog, both in number and frequency of posts.  One thing I am going to be using it for is to ponder the choices I make for my next campaign.  If you are wondering why, it helps me to organise my thoughts in this...
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