Call Of Cthulu General

>>49369977
My only advice is for you to chop that group size down to 3-4 if you can. A big group with an inexperienced GM can equal a disaster.

>>49369977
Use some typical haunted house tricks to separate the party whenever you can, if only to keep the number of players in each scene more manageable. The players are gonna feel pretty secure with such a high number of people, the more of them you can get apart from each other, the more you can ramp up the tension.

Running a proper horror game can be very tricky. I don't have much advice to give, but there are two important things to keep in mind: The atmosphere is very important(and can easily be ruined by a poorly timed joke or OOC chatter in general) and you can't scare the players if they don't want to be scared.

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>>49369977
Start with 3 investigators and only invite more if that works well. CoC is a different kind of animal. You have to pay attention to your players. Pacing and tension is everything.

The CoC mechanics and game structure have layers. They can and should all be used to control tension and to decay the characters. But they function in different ways and can be brought into conflict for the players while all coming together to corner the characters for the keeper.

The most immediate one is HEALTH. It is a scarce resource, about 10 HP for the average investigator. And a normal gun can deal 1d6 several times in a round. Getting into a situation that threatens health considerably should be reserved for investigators who have made an error in judgment or have made it all the way to the big boy threats revealed near the end. But a little damage early on can nicely set a tone, raise the stakes, and initiate a slow decay in this dimension.

The next layer is SANITY. It is not as scarce as health, but it doesn't heal as readily, or at all in most one shots. Its sphere is twofold: personal responsibility, and confrontation with extreme experiences. This is probably the main avenue of character decay in CoC. Roll san when witnessing the terrible thing, roll san to do horrible things in order to stop the terrible thing, or do both. Relevant knowledge and sanity tend to be inversely proportional to each other: it costs a lot of san to learn the mystery of a scenario clue by clue. But beyond a mere limited resource it is also a starting point for a lot of flavor detail connected to losing sanity. Unlike health the wounds suffered in sanity stick around in the mechanics and keep shaping the character with little episodes.

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>>49372555

Then there's LUCK. It can be rolled against directly to test if coincidence is in the investigator's favor. But it can now also be spent to boost failed rolls making it a bit of a moxy stash, one that easily runs out - just in time to test if coincidence is in the investigator's favor...

And finally there's the CONTEXT of the scenario, the rapport and trust that has been built among PCs and with NPCs, the leeway which the social order grants to anyone who doesn't seem mad, sinister, or violent, and also the feeling that the world has your back and isn't facing off against you after having torn off its mask. This is not in mechanics but up to the keeper managing the game dynamic with story.

These layers come together to form a spiral of decay that first lets the characters seem powerful in their wonderful world and then removes both power and world in increments that can be felt by the players. In the end their backs shouldn't just be against the wall in the story, their sheets should be close to character loss in more ways than just death through major wound as well.

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>>49372567
For The Haunting that means you seriously have to ramp up the san checks, come up with a few more ways to test skills in a crucial situation, as well as ways to deal minor damage.

If the investigators explore the Chapel of Contemplation and its history there is ample opportunity to roll sanity for clues of the things that happened there and for implication that connect it to the place at hand. And don't forget to have the investigators roll if they resort to morally ambiguous deeds.

Skill checks give them opportunity to spend luck. But skill checks should always matter to the story and never build walls. They are opportunities for the players to discover more about the inevitable conclusion and build an arsenal of knowledge, contacts, and artifacts to face it. So a failed skill check should mean they proceed to the finish none the wiser while the degrees of success deliver better levels of preparedness. In The Haunting skills are all research and social, that's perfect. But there aren't enough to really tax luck, especially with a large party. So make more.

Damage can be more incidental. It is wise to set a time limit, with real estate as the apparent goal that is easy. Otherwise investigators could just take the time to heal each little wound and avoid health decay. Then there are only 2 real health threats in the scenario, both are surprising and easily fatal. I'd foreshadow this with smaller damage, turning it into more of a creeping decay. Corbitt controls everything in the house. Moving stuff costs him magic points, but I'd just not count those until the players face the basement for good. Then have everything in the house be haunted and set to inflict damage as soon as Corbitt will no longer let them leave the house. Books falling off shelves, nails sticking out of wood, floor boards tripping the intruders, everything just causes a damage point or two. But they add up quickly. Make it more intense towards the extra bedroom to lead the players on.

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>>49372790
Of course, if you are using The Haunting not as a one-shot but as the beginning of a bigger story then you don't have to tax the investigators' resources all the way to the edge. If the next scenario is related and connected seamlessly then the spiral of decay can be larger.

But if the story isn't connected through its mystery or if there is time to recover then I'd treat it as separate and run The Haunting all the way to the end of some investigators' resources. Try to balance it so they don't know what is more dangerous: health loss or sanity loss.

>>49369987
>>49372555
I think that's what I'll do. Four players already have their characters up and made, but one of those is extraordinarily unavailable according to my life schedule. I have a fairly good grip of the rules of the book, but how you explained it does give me a lot of good information to work with and I appreciate it.
>>49373024
While it will be a larger story I'm still considering at least killing off one investigator. I have a feeling one of them is going to play unrealistically and dangerously stupid so that'll help. Thoughts on executing a PC for the first game? No particular players are actually targeted, it will be either Luck roll based or interaction based.

>>49374986

Don't go easy on them, but nobody likes instakills or unavoidable death. Now if you make it a sacrifice, noble or otherwise, that might work.

>>49374986
No, you don't set out to kill an investigator. Leave that to their curiosity and the dice. It is really crucial that you don't bring fiat into it, it has to be the mechanics, or it becomes pointless.

Your job as keeper is to offer them that knife's edge to walk on. You manage tension and pacing, clue structure, skill roll framing, and continuity. The getting killed part is all on the players.

In fact warn them. If they want ot go somewhere or do something that you know could be dangerous to their HP, say it looks bad, gives them a bad feeling, or that they have to fight the urge to not do it and go away. If it's a tough case even have them make a small sanity roll to do it. Make them take responsibility. If you are sure that it will kill them have NPCs or scribbled notes on the wall warn them that death is ahead and they're not ready!

As a keeper tricking the players means making them immersed and invested, not positioning the characters into a poor tactical position.