Naturally, they’ll want to look into the history of the building and the disappearances this is the first tier.
Call of cthulhu walkthrough 2018 series#
To better understand this concept, let's say the players need to investigate a series of missing person reports at a hotel outside the city.
Instead of having every piece of the puzzle available for the players to find, keep some clues hidden until players find enough background to make sense of these new discoveries. In a tiered discovery system, a keeper plans a structure in order for the players to make discoveries.
Using a tiered discovery system can be very beneficial to first time keepers. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t include red herrings or tough puzzles for players to solve instead, a keeper should plan their mysteries with a balance of leads and dead ends. Keepers may find this compelling, but more often than not, the players will find this frustrating. A good mystery will have details hidden beneath layers of misdirection and red herrings. Working backwards allows a keeper to plan a campaign without having to solve their own mysteries.Ģ) Plan Specific Discoveries That Progress The Story Forwardĭue to its investigative nature, Call of Cthulhu can hit roadblocks that leave the players at a dead end. Instead, focus on the resolution and plant clues for the players to discover their enemy’s plan as the story unfolds. Who is the Old One they are summoning, where is the ritual happening, and what are they doing to complete the ritual? For a first design, a keeper shouldn’t plan too much for their villain.
To keep this simple, the villain (likely a cult) needs a who, a where, and a what, as they are the only important questions for building the conclusion. These details will supply the leads that point the players towards the campaign’s climax with a series of sensical and connected events that will keep them engaged.Įvery campaign has a bad guy, but a keeper shouldn’t spend too much time on their villain. This can include clues that, when pieced together, point the players towards that resolution. When a keeper knows some of the ending details before it even starts, they will have a solid resolution that they can build towards. A Call of Cthulhu campaign is a horror story, and a horror story without a compelling ending is simply going to be forgotten. The best place to start is right at the end, and a keeper should first ask themselves where and how it’ll be. They simply provide the hook and let the players pull at the string. A keeper should let the players decide where the story begins whether that be in one player’s private eye office or the occult ward at Miskatonic university, it should not be part of the keeper’s plans. Forcing a beginning will be counterintuitive when it comes to starting a compelling narrative. When a keeper creates a storyline for the first time, it doesn’t matter where the players start the campaign. Here are five tips for making that challenge a little bit easier.
This buildup of tension is pivotal to Call of Cthulhu, and it can be difficult to create. The climax of a campaign is often deadly, but there needs to be more to a session for the players leave satisfied. It asks the players, “How many die rolls will it take to beat this monster?” Call of Cthulhu asks instead, “What if that monster cannot be defeated even worse, what if that monster cannot even be comprehended?” The game master, officially referred to as the keeper, has a unique challenge ahead of them when designing a Call of Cthulhu campaign. In Dungeons and Dragons, players find themselves in a dungeon with reaching the monster at the end as their goal. As it lurchs up from the seabed, this system breaks the shoreline and demands a different storytelling method from its game master.