GMing CoC for the first time

[Jarmen4u]

Hey guys, my normal weekly game is missing a few people so the DM suggested I do a one shot. Since it's October, they wanted spooky, and settled on Call of Cthulhu.

So as someone who only knows 3.PF, some Rogue Trader, and a little 5e D&D(and a group that mainly only knows 5e D&D), where do I start to put together a fun one-shot for this weekend (other than reading the core rulebook)?

Any tips for actually running the game and making it sufficiently spooky? It's going to be mid-day, so I won't be able to turn out the lights and put out candles or anything like that.

Sorry if this is the wrong subforum, I wasn't sure where to pose a question regarding CoC.

[Khedrac]

First off, this is the right forum.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about making it spooky - I have never played in a game of CoC which actually came off as spooky, very enjoyable yes, sometimes very funny (yes, we tend to laugh a lot when playing CoC) but never spooky. Partly this is because the threat is always to your characters and not to you.
I think your group will find its own atmosphere for playing CoC, don't try to force one on it. It may not be the atmosphere you prefer though.

Never turn off the lights and play by candlelight - it doesn't enhance the atmosphere, it just makes the character-sheets and dice harder to read. Yes, I have played a CoC session by candlelight many years ago - it didn't work well.

If you want to be really spooky, don't play a conventional RPG, play a more impovisational one where you act your character - then you can use low lighting etc.

As for scenarios, I can be of less help - I have never run CoC, but there should be a lot out there you can download.
If writing your own, remember that you must include backup methods for the party to learn what they need to. If they fail on one encounter, then something else needs to supply the clues they need (either that or write the encounters so that they get the clue regardless of whether they 'succeed' at the encounter). You can offer bonuses they can get by succeeding, but they need to be able to get to the end of the scenario regardless.
Next up, don't try to kill the party. Combat in CoC is very lethal at the best of times, the party will probably kill themselves occasionally (and as a one off, it is particularly frustrating for a player if their character dies early on and they cannot join in the rest of the session; in our campaign we have backup characters ready in case of accidents). If the Keeper puts tough combat encounters in the party will almost certainly die; use them (with warning) to chase the party but don't force them to fight them unless they have access to decent weapons (we've been cut off from our normal arsenals and it hurts - I mean it's wartime and we only have handguns, no rifles or grenades!)
What is more fun (and nervous for the players) is to keep chipping away at their characters' sanity, and make sure you check out the rules for when episodes of permanent and temporary insanity strike (my character has a phobia of four-poster beds..., all I can say is that is a very good thing that he doesn't breath or I would be on my backup character).

Good luck.

[JeenLeen]

Don't try to play the enemies overly smart, unless you have a module that's calling for it. For one thing, most enemies are either insane humans or creatures with otherwordly mindsets, so it is reasonable they would not act like an intelligent villain. Second... well, let me tell a story from a game I ran.

The PCs included a mad scientist who, upon hearing they were investigating a haunted house (or upon seeing stuff move such that they expected a ghost--forget which), decided to make some holy water via alchemy. I decided that it didn't work, but had the specter act like it did and run away, mainly in order to trick the party and have them find it useless later on. That wound up just frustrating and confusing them during the final 'fight' with the ghost.
The above was an adaptation of a module, but I forget which.

Also, talk to the players and make sure they are aware that CoC is not like D&D, in that you are generally not supposed to fight & defeat the enemies. Sometimes you can, sure, but generally that's not the goal. You don't want to treat a group of otherworldy beasts like they might treat a cave with a few goblins.

On spookiness -- no solid advice, though just having them worried about what will or will not cause a Sanity roll can help. Maybe they find a book that hints at what the cult is up to, but reading it makes it hard for them to sleep and causes Sanity loss. Do they keep reading, or go in ignorant? Or some strange rune makes them feel uncomfortable. Do they dare approach and risk what may happen, or try to find another route?
Fear of the unknown worked for the games I ran.

[Anonymouswizard]

First off, you don't have to go for 'spooky' horror, and CoC is really bad at it. Outside of Lovecraft CoC is most like Silent Hill and similar horror where you can fight, but avoiding combat is generally a good idea (as I got reminded when I lost three health drinks in one hallway in SH3). That means that ideally you want to go psychological on them at least a bit.

My first suggestion is to drop the Bestiary as anything other than a bunch of stats. Most of the Lovecraft Mythos is recognisable enough to geeks, either through pop culture or generic versions (see ghouls) so as to not be overly scary. Instead come up with or steal an idea they wouldn't expect, I've always wanted to run a CoC game which uses the Silent Hill idea of a genius locus that punishes something out it's visitors*. If you need to make your own monsters it's relatively easy to give them stats.

Another idea is to go the Laundry Files route where this stuff isn't completely horrifying and you know it's going to be sorted by then end of the story, and so flavour the mythos encounters as something else. The Laundry RPG is one of my favourite versions of Lovecraft Mythos roleplay, but that's very much personal preference.

* In Silent Hill itself it seems to be guilt that's punished more than anything else, going by SH2.

[Jarmen4u]

I was actually digging around for 1-shot modules and found some resources on those, and it seems that In Media Res is a very popular module. What are your opinions on that one? It seems fairly straightforward, but also, looking at it, I don't think I could get it to last for 4 hours. What am I missing? Any advice for this module specifically?

[Magua]

It is interesting, I'll give it that.

Do note that the personal scenes can bog down a game if there's only one GM to run it if they take too long.

Also note that the scenario can very quickly involve intra-party combat. It's not necessarily going to happen, but the chance of it occurring is a lot higher than other scenarios. So that part depends on what your players are looking for.

I've had good success with Uncle Timothy's Will (PCs are descendants in dire financial straights who will inherit Uncle Timothy's money if they stay on a mountain for a night, which I feel is a great answer to "why don't the PCs just run away"), which was in one of the main CoC rulebooks at one point.