Building a Cthulu adventure.

[Gorkamorka]

I have this idea for an interconnected series of Cthulu adventures that I want to write down with the end goal of publishing them in some form*.  But I have a problem.  I have hardly ever played CoC and never run it.  I have played and run plenty of other games, but I lack a lot of the experience needed for CoC.  So I’m here looking for help.  So here are some questions in no particular order.

1.  What is the general structure of a CoC adventure?  To give an example of what I mean a typical DnD adventure is:  Info dump – Shopping and rumour pickups – small fight on the way to the dungeon – Deathtraps – Medium Fight – Small Fight – Boss Fight – Loot.  Sprinkle with deathtraps, fights and loot as needed.

2.  What is a small fight, medium fight, big fight in CoC?  What about if the PCs only have melee weapons and no guns?  Same or different?  At what point are we more likely to get a TPK then not?

3.  How does one make an investigation breadcrumb trail without making it to obvious?

4.  What is the basic skill set that needs to be present in a group of pregens regardless of time/place?  What skills are necessary for every single character to have? 

5.  How fast should the SAN loss be?  These adventures are thought of as a string of one-shots.  So characters are not meant to last through a series of them.

6.  What sort of things (Other then monsters) cause SAN loss and how much?

7.  How do I build a forbidden tome?  What should be in one, talking in game mechanics here?  The forbidden knowledge is a given.

8...Other questions to come as I think them up.

Thanks

* I’m realistic here.  When I say publish I mean get them onto the interweb for people to use. 

[Joven]

note, I'm not an expert, or even any good, but from what little i know:

2. Dont think theres much in the ways of small fights in CoC, if its come to violence shit has already gotten out of hand. I guess something along the lines of Aaron's Super-Professor vs G-man in Bryson Springs would count as a small fight, so 1 on 1 against mundane guys unarmed not looking to outright murder each other is about it, much else and it gets dangerous fast (since on average you only have about 7-13hp per character.)

4. spot hidden, listen, maybe some sneak and hide, library use, psychology and fast talk or persuade (if it fits the character) are pretty helpful

5. Enough so that at least one character is stark raving mad by the end, maybe approaching it by the middle. It maybe should also kinda be pretty tapered, so at the beginning theres not much loss until they really start getting into it and then a spurt in the middle where theres oodles of SAN checks and probably taper off near the end when theyve been desensitized (theyve already seen a bunch of monsters, done stuff they'll probably regret and already have a temporary disorder by then)

6. Violence, knowing too much, seeing shit go down

[clockworkjoe]

Get and read Masks of Nyarlathotep - even if you don't run it, it provides an excellent example of a CoC campaign, which will answer all of your questions.

[Setherick]

Get and read Masks of Nyarlathotep - even if you don't run it, it provides an excellent example of a CoC campaign, which will answer all of your questions.

I agree with this. Also, reading through the starter scenarios in the core book will give you some idea about how to structure it. The key is to not think about it as a linear scenario, so don't think of it at all in terms of the D&D quest. CoC adventures are sandboxes. The players are going to do the unexpected. Things won't happen in the order that you think they will. It's better to think about it as designing a world and then letting a group of sociopaths run free.