Mountains

Last night we finished Beyond the Mountains of Madness, which is widely considered one of the great epic Call of Cthulhu campaigns.  I have previously posted about our ascent through Mountains here and here and my thoughts about how this campaign contrasts with another of the classics; Masks of Nyarlathotep.

 

I am pleased to say that providing a strong character focus during the early sessions of this campaign let us pick up the action after a nine month break and dive straight back into it.  The finale was played out over several different scenes, as written in the campaign which offered some great action moments.  I think the most important part of running any game which involves dice, is for the GM to understand the system well enough to set the odds so they are likely to deliver the best outcome for the story, then turn it over to the characters and the dice, and accept whatever results are rolled.  This transparency leads to real tension amongst the players, and makes survival, or indeed triumph, so much sweeter.

However, in a campaign like Mountains this can be a high risk strategy.  A finite number of characters are on hand, and after spending time building some intense characterisation, there is always the possibility that a player will have atrocious luck, and be eliminated at any juncture.  In Mountains I tried to mitigate this risk somewhat with paired down house rules from my pulp outings which granted each character a single fate point (allowing survival when death would otherwise have been inventible) and this point gave each character two skill re-rolls per session. Setting the odds for each encounter also allows a GM a high degree of influence in determining a likely outcome which is often not immediately apparent to the players.

 

The enduring reward for running this campaign, investing in the characters, and having the vast majority survive the campaign, is the legacy of each of these characters after they leave Antarctica.  How they reconcile their harrowing experiences and the dreadful truths they have learnt and what this will ultimately cost them.  This attempt by broken and shattered people to reconcile horror with life in the modern world is, I think, the essence of Lovecraft and a fitting way to leave the campaign.

 

Campaign Statistics
Sessions Played: 14
Chapters: 16
Number of Players: 7
Number of Characters: 7
Total Fate Points Expended: 2
Character Deaths: 1

Reaching the Summit

Last night we completed our twelfth session of Mountains, which is probably the most dramatic and poignant of the campaign. I am pleased to say that I think we all did it justice, no mean feat considering the prior eleven sessions had all been building toward this single, dramatic climax. I think this was reflected by the harrowed, tense play of the surviving characters and the grim decision making that followed. I have enjoyed running Mountains again, and also enjoyed the sharp contrast with Masks.

In other news EPOCH, my survival-horror roleplaying game is nearing publication. I hope to publish it this month, in time for Halloween and am busy putting the finishing touches on the 3 scenarios which are included with the game, and working my way through the list of minor revisions and editing generated by the folks who have reviewed the game thus far.  If anyone has any suggestions on tips for launching or promoting EPOCH these would be gratefully received.  I expect I'll be posting more here shortly, not just with more detail about the game, but also the expereince of putting it all together.

I’ve offered to run one of the EPOCH scenarios, Sunshine Falls, at Fright Night this year, so if you’re keen to try the game (or any of the other great offerings from this years 'con) now is a good time to get in and register due to limited places at this ‘con.

On Ice (with monsters)

I’ve been enjoying running Beyond the Mountains of Madness again.  It’s a very different campaign to Masks, and I’ve tried to really encourage the players to invest some time in their characters, making them as rich as possible, as this is an essential element of Mountains.  Where Masks presented Indiana Jones style encounters replete with a diverse cast of unlikely villains, and players could easily walk the path of a caricature of a character, Mountains is a slow burn, with very little in the way of actual horror and only sparse action after 8 full sessions, and I’ve tried to encourage more realistic characters, although I’m not sure they’re all as fully fleshed out as I’d like yet.

The challenges of Mountains for the GM are numerous.  There is a massive cast of NPC’s and scant information about many of these, to allow any deep exploration upon subsequent character encounters– nor does the scenario attempt to predict how many of these will react to the major events of the campaign (to this point).  In addition, adequately conveying the difficulties and arduousness of ocean travel, pack ice, and the inhospitable Antarctic climate is significantly difficult.

Running this campaign initially more than a decade ago, I was left with some powerful memories of the way the characters faced the climax of the campaign.  I only hope that I can ensure there is significant player attachment to this group of characters to come close to emulating some of those achievements over the next couple of months.

Next, a shout-out to the venerable Mike Sands who has just published his Monster of the Week, action-horror roleplaying game.

There are monsters out there. Most people don't believe in them, but they're real. Mostly, when someone finds out that monsters are real, that's just before they die.

But some people are mean enough, smart enough, crazy enough, or hurt enough, that they live. And some of those people go and hunt down more.

That's who you are – someone who decided to go on a crusade against the evil critters that are scurrying around out there.

• It could be that you make a stand and defend your hometown from everything evil that comes there. 
  
• It could be you take to the road and go find them. 
•  It could be you have magic powers that help out.  
• It could be that your name came up in prophecies thousands of years ago. 

The one sure thing is you aren't gonna go back to your old, safe life...

 Finally, I’d like to point you in the direction of Matt and Debbie Cowens new book Mansfield with Monsters.  Matt and Debbie have been working hard at their craft, and I’m sure this new book is just as awesome as it sounds, my congratulations to these two 'true pioneers of the macabre':

Noble Dogs

Several years ago I ran what I believe to be one of the best single-session Call of Cthulhu scenarios of all time.  That scenario is My Little Sister Wants You To Suffer which is one of a collection of scenarios included in Cublice 7’s Cthulhu Britannica.  I liked it so much I ran the scenario 7 times for more than 35 different players, posted a review online, (Spoiler Warning)  and even made available the additional materials I had created to enhance the game (a sectional map, simplified character sheets and handouts, computer voice prompts etc.).  It remains an enduring favourite scenario for me, containing the right level of complexity, lethality, hilarity with a killer twist.

I’m therefore very pleased to say that Paul Fricker, the author of My Little Sister, has released a new one-off scenario for Call of Cthulhu called Dockside Dogs.  He’s made this scenario available for a small donation into cancer research.  You can support cancer research here [EDIT: Updated as Paul has now set this up via DriveThru RPG]. Dockside Dogs is a modern-day scenario for 3-6 players and includes character sheets for Mr. Beige, Mr. Purple, Mr. Black, Mr. Red, Mr. Silver and Mr. Green.

Congratulations to Paul, both for donating his work to such a worthy cause, and for his contribution to the forthcoming 7^th Edition of Call of Cthulhu.

In other news I have commenced running ‘Beyond the Mountains of Madness’ and am enjoying finding the right balance for the slow start to the campaign.  Hopefully the time and effort spent in this early phase, developing the characters, and their relationships, will pay dividends in drama when we get to the ice.