I am about to run Masks of Nyarlathotep and would like some help

[ThnJonWasAZmbie]

Some examples of help I am looking for are things like advice on how to keep the general flow of the storyline going, what to do if the players start straying too far off, things like that mostly.  Also feel free to share any experiences you have had with the game.

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[Shallazar]

ThnJonWasAZmbie,

Have you listened to the gaming grunts actual play? www.thegamingrunts.com they have about hour long episodes.

Also I might recommend my actual plays on the http://community.roleplayingpublicradio.com/ site.

Also, if you can find Ross's rpg.net thread there are some tips there, even if it is old. The community over at yog-sothoth is perpetually foaming at the mouth about helping with the Masks Campaign.

So far in my experience I've come to realize that the investigators will not pursue every lead. They might also try to do ludicrous things be ready to adapt and just keep moving forward. We're 35 hours in and not out of Cairo yet, everyone is having a blast though.

Also, masks is very handout intensive, I got folders for all my players for them to keep Character sheets, handouts, and whenever they found a mythos tome or an artifact I had them write it on an index card and put that in their folder. I also started having them record character deaths in a separate graveyard ala the Delta Green PC mortuary.

Also, if you want characters to last longer, allow them to make san rolls for reading books, increase their hitpoints, and have proxies attacked first. If you think they're straying too far, just tell them so, or you can always use dreams (very lovecraft) or commune with dead rituals, fortune tellers, and I've got two websites that are super helpful to me:

http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
http://www.bookranger.co.uk/Cthulhu/Telegram.html
http://www.bookranger.co.uk/Cthulhu/100Characters.htm

After the New York Chapter you'll kind of know how long it should take them to get through each chapter, and you can always cut out the Red Herrings (Slaughter in Soho, Police Baffled by Mysterious Murders, The Black Cat). That has worked well for most people.

You might want to make multiple copies of the Carlyle News Clippings and have all the initial investigators be friends with Jackson Elias, otherwise as members die off the reason for continuing on the mad quest turns a little silly. You could easily turn Prospero House into a world wide detective agency or something, some spy network, or like in Ross' game have a Serpent Person start recruiting people.

Bookmarks!
Sticky Notes!
A 1925 calendar.

The campaign is awesome.

Hope this helped some, feel free to PM me.