Miskatonic University Campus

yeah we should touch on this from a player view-point soon,

I like it serious, too. I think it's quite possible to achieve a collective chill during role play sessions, and it's absolutely the bar that I like to set. It does, however, take the highest level of buy-in from everyone at the table. Tone's a fragile thing.

Yeah, I totally see the merits of playing in a "now" setting. Lovecraft largely placed his characters in his own present, not 100 years in the past. But I find that, intentional or not, Call of Cthulhu opened the door to a rich gaming environment that was rooted in history but remains deeply creative and speculative. I've played in history-based sessions of CoC got incredibly silly, but I've also found the same can happen in "now" games. Managing tone is just something that goes along with role playing, I think. But if "now" resonates with you most as a Keeper, then that's the era in which you'll get the best results.

Dr. Gerard wrote:I like it serious, too. I think it's quite possible to achieve a collective chill during role play sessions, and it's absolutely the bar that I like to set. It does, however, take the highest level of buy-in from everyone at the table. Tone's a fragile thing.

Exactly. If you have the right players and set the tone early, then it's achievable.

Firstly you shouldn't allow silly character concepts, for some reason there's always that one player who has to run something goofy. It's possible to enjoy a game without turning it into a Monty Python skit.

It's a simple recipe though, the right Keeper and right players.

fallingtower wrote:

Dr. Gerard wrote:I like it serious, too. I think it's quite possible to achieve a collective chill during role play sessions, and it's absolutely the bar that I like to set. It does, however, take the highest level of buy-in from everyone at the table. Tone's a fragile thing.

Exactly. If you have the right players and set the tone early, then it's achievable.

Firstly you shouldn't allow silly character concepts, for some reason there's always that one player who has to run something goofy. It's possible to enjoy a game without turning it into a Monty Python skit.

It's a simple recipe though, the right Keeper and right players.

Totally agree. There's an art to getting that one player to somehow tone it down or adjust their attitude to match whatever you're going for. It's possible sometimes to use a little Role Playing Judo, to work with the wacky player's choices and turn them around. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to recast your whole group to get what you want, right? It's just a reality of this medium.

Dr. Gerard wrote:Yeah, I totally see the merits of playing in a "now" setting. Lovecraft largely placed his characters in his own present, not 100 years in the past. But I find that, intentional or not, Call of Cthulhu opened the door to a rich gaming environment that was rooted in history but remains deeply creative and speculative. I've played in history-based sessions of CoC got incredibly silly, but I've also found the same can happen in "now" games. Managing tone is just something that goes along with role playing, I think. But if "now" resonates with you most as a Keeper, then that's the era in which you'll get the best results.

The 'present tense' setting I think might have worked better for me because of familiarity. The 1920's are so foreign to most folk and being the silent movie era, people aren't very familiar with the era via movies. All they tend to know is gangsters, prohibition, jazz and flappers.

I enjoy the challenge of running modern. Insane ravings on Facebook, frantic text messages, no bars on the cell phone, using iPhone as a flashlight...batteries dying! Cell phone going off when the investigators are hiding from the cultists.

I'm not scared of new technology. Cultists have cell phones too.

New to MU & CoC in general, not sure if this is a show topic or just a good thing to have on the site as a list but after nearly catching up to the backlog I'd like to know more about the following:

+some of the keepers on the podcast in a few episodes have mention of previously published scenarios, are there any links to those?
+and also with being new to CoC, with the abyss-filled size of scenarios out there, apart from the Orient Express & Masks, what are some other rather stellar ones to dive into first?
+have there been any iconic horror movie moments that the keepers (that they can talk about) where they've put their own mythos spins on these moments to inflict on the investigators?

Keep up the great work guys!

One idea for a show topic popped in my brain while listening again to Ep.30 where it was touched on a little with the reflections on bribery, so here goes.

Apart from the rural areas of the 1920s & maybe even the gaslight Victorian settings for the game, with all the new technology just getting dreamed up or started back then, what was daily life like for the people in the major cities?

Thx & keep up the great work.

Quick show side topic that came to mind: while looking through the Chaosium website while listening to the dreamlands episode on MU, there's a lot of sourcebooks that have been put out (Secrets of Japan, Secrets of Los Angeles, Secrets of New Orleans, etc.) & got me wondering if any of you have looked into these and more importantly if you have any favorites (or hated ones that needed more information or just not written as well as the others)? Thanks.

Good suggestions. They're in the cue!