Welcome to Roll4Sanity where we look at the fun to be had roleplaying as a Mythos Investigator! From the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game to Delta Green and all that’s in-between, there has never been a better time to enjoy ‘table-top’ role-playing.

To Begin at the Beginning

I am very late to the party and have a lot of catching up to do. and that’s one of the reasons behind this blog. I had the second edition Call of Cthulhu Role-playing game when it came out in the UK and had a couple of very fun sessions. Then with different groups of friends the role-playing games varied. Warhammer Fantasy Role-playing (WFRP) was a favourite as well as various Palladium games like Ninjas and Superspies. Writing and running these adventures was a creative outlet that was fun up to a point. I tried running Call of Cthulhu 3rd edition once for the Warhammer folks, but they were the sort of people who helped create the definition of a Murder Hobo – it did not go well! I kept in touch with Mythos role-playing games as life moved along but never got the chance to play. Instead, my creative efforts went into various projects. I wrote and used 3d graphics to create a comic, made radio plays with actor friends of mind but most of my spare time went into writing and making short films. One project that went very well was a Mythos themed short film which was shown at the HP Lovecraft Historic Society Film Festival!

Then we all saw all that collaborative working and creativity stop overnight. I was never a regular at a bar or season ticket holder at the cinema but to have no idea when you could do anything creative again was a real loss. The video conferencing technology that had always been there was suddenly pushed to the forefront of how to interact with people. There was the push of digital publications to keep you entertain and I picked up a charity bundle of WFRP PDFs and happily read through them. I took a look at where I could play the games and found the Virtual Table Top (VTT) platforms and signed up to Roll20 but didn’t land a game. Instead I watched YouTube videos of friends getting together online and playing through scenarios just like I used to do with friends. I contacted one channel, as they had a Discord server where they play, and a few months later I had my first game in years and a few months after that I wrote and ran my own game for them. I can tell you that for me writing a running a role-playing game can be as rewarding as going through a whole production of a short film – plus it’s a lot cheaper!

There is such a scope of games being played that most folks can find a genre and style of investigation to suit them! If there isn’t one then there are online courses to help folks write their own adventurer and find an avenue to publish it for others to enjoy. With so many games to choose from, it will be fun to explore the stories and mysteries that are being written to play.

Enter the player

The essential part of any adventure is the character to play through the evil schemes that the Keeper of Arcane Law has instore for you! Will you take on the role of the strong one to step into harm’s way or the one who figures it all out or the one who stays sane enough to explain everything to the police! Choices choices.

I’ve seen so many expert Keepers explaining how to run the game, spent many hours watching videos and podcasts of folks doing actual plays of a game but only a few vids on how to play the various games themselves. Yes, some videos are able to explain the rules but translating that into practical game play is something else.

I’ve only been role-playing again for about a year at the time of this blog and have enjoyed nearly every game I played. I want to improve how I play, not to win as Mythos Investigation games rarely have a happy ending. It’s more to do with feeling you contributed to the adventure and made a positive difference to the outcome. Folks who have played more than me are straight onto a clue to progress the game or know how to deal with a situation and survive! By recording my experiences of game play here, I hope I will improve and pick up some tips to pass on or at least die trying and have a lot of fun!