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Oh, what a rush as they used to say. When folks say to you, “Oh I’ve been non-stop!” please assume they have been role-playing, not only role-playing for fun but also for a podcast and not only that, but planning, running, and editing the post productions for those games and probably have a side hustle YouTube channel for which they are also making vids.
Hi folks, so why no blogs? Oh, I’ve been non-stop.
Ha! But you’re not hear for small talk you want to know how to be a great Mythos Investigator! Well let me tell you, jumping to the other side of the table and being the Keeper can help a lot. Taking a turn running a game as a Keeper not only helps you know the rules but as you prep your game, will find yourself thinking of all the possibilities that your players will take. Then when you actually play the game, the investigators will take an entirely different route! It’s well worth you reviewing these differences to see what can be learned. So, what did I learn? Let’s Roll4Sanity.
Into the Gaslight
You can read the full blog entry Keeping the Gaslight Ghost here but my first game as Keeper for the Miskatonic Playhouse was the Gaslight Adventure “The Hammersmith Haunting.” Victorian Ghosts are one of my ‘Instabuys’ when it comes to picking adventures so I wanted to run is game as soon as it came out. Three mythos investigators go to a fog bound Hammersmith to investigate the mystery of a white lady. Tips for players? Well, this comes from the players of the Playhouse – Newman, Lydia and Stu. An investigator has a personality, use this to drive your investigation especially if this to prove another member of the party right or wrong! I hear that the Alien RPG has a mechanic where you have friend in the group and an enemy. Now I’m the sensitive type so wouldn’t want to be disliked by another character just because the game says I should. But with the correct players, a personality clash between characters can drive your investigations to new heights! Watch me run the Hammersmith Haunting here.
Occupations and Skills!
At the start of the year, I began putting out short vids on investigator skills and if those skills are worth taking as an investigator! They are mainly put out as a stopgap between investigator creation videos but contain lots of tips, so I hope you’re checking them out on the Roll4Sanity YouTube channel. I have also redone most of the graphics for the Investigator creation videos to hopefully make them more visually interesting and fun to watch. I’m creating investigators that are marked as “Lovecraftian” so these are type of folks you’ll find in the Mythos novels and stories as well as being main stays in the Call of Cthulhu RPG since the start. You can find those vids here.
The Final Frontier
I’m very lucky to have a role-play group where we play different RPGS and we wanted to try a space based setting. Having run another group through 5e Star Wars I was incredibly pleased to use the Call of Cthulhu 7e rules for a Star Trek game! You can read about Brave New World here but can we get Mythos Investigator tips from the 23rd Century? Of course! There can be situations where time and locations can give a false sense of entrapment. The Star Trek Ensigns had a number of assets and people to call upon. Whist you might not be able to call for transport to beam you out of a sticky situation look around for your assets in game. A security guard can carry a phaser or a flashlight just like a doctor can have a tricorder or stethoscope. Think, who is around to give support in your Investigators time of need?
All Aboard….
I can’t believe I got a spot on the Orient Express as a player!! I’ve played the whole Masks of Nyarlathotep and to get a chance to play the Horror on the Orient Express campaign was amazing. You can read my thoughts on creating a campaign character in Meet Doctor Lewis and the big tip for investigators here is Note Notes Notes!! I have terrible handwriting as I’m on the spectrum and have mild form of Dyspraxia so writing notes quickly gives me a page of text even a cryptologist would not be able to crack! That said, any notes are worthwhile, and it is SO rewarding to show your Keeper you are listening! I remember one time we wondered how a clue got to where it was and a quick look through my notes found a matching surname linking the past to the present and this was confirmed by the Keeper. Also, notes are naturally a great reminder of the story to look at from session to session and every so often so see how far your character has come for… however long they last!
Deadly Dinner
Living in the UK we have a fair few bits of Coastline and quite a maritime history so when friend of the Cosmic Outpost and producer of the Miskatonic Playhouse author SR Sellens released his adventure, A Drop of Nelsons Blood I knew we had to do something special. Having seen the large-scale productions of Chaoisum’s Bookshops and Graves Yards of Arkham sometimes a game just needs to be played face to face and filmed on a good location. Having been a film maker I set out an over ambitious project to film A Drop of Nelson’s Blood and you can read about that here in On Location. What tips for investigators? First tip – being in the same room as your fellow investigators adds at least another 25% more fun and enjoyment to a game of Call of Cthulhu. If you have friends with which you play Call of Cthulhu in person then you are truly fortunate. I’ve enjoyed playing with folks from across the world online and had the most amazing game but being able to meet in person would be extra special. Second tip, prepare your investigator to meet their doom! As you may expect, not all characters will make it through a game and you may have heard me say to shape your characters story so if they don’t make it through, they have ‘won’ their story even if that is their end and the game concludes in a way not perceived as victory. Mythos stories never have a happy ending.
Bring on the Summer!
So, with two more titles recorded for the Miskatonic Playhouse I can relax into the post-production work needed to create the 10 to 12 hours of video and equal amounts of Audio podcast. There will be more projects later the summer and I might even put out another run of Fast Talk, the Roll4sanity podcast. Now though, is a time to look back on achievements and this is the time when I write this blog because I want to remember the good times!