Masks of Nyarlathotep is a classic (some would say quintessential) campaign for Call of Cthulhu. Given how much we play CoC, I thought it would be remiss of us not to record a run of it. It took us about a year to get through the campaign, but our dedicated group of investigators solved mysteries, fought cultists, and confronted horrible abominations from beyond time and space. I heavily changed the core campaign, using advice from Adam Scott Glancy and the invaluable book, the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion. Find out what I changed and why and how the players thought of the game.
Get links to every AP episode of the campaign here.
Song: We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:41:12 — 69.7MB)
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I’d like to hear “team masks” play in an Eclipse Phase champaign given enough time for GM palates to be cleansed. Although team masks is entertàining in pretty much anything I imagine.
Good luck to Sean & Anne in Washington. Obligatory warning to be wary of any masked men in suits in the area.
Dracula dossier incoming? Awesome!
Many moons late, butt happy trails to Sean and Anne, you two were awesome.
I had forgotten we’re getting Bill running Dracula Dossier! I love forgetting things like that because then I get REMINDED of them
omg this version of We’ll Meet Again changes the I/you and it fucked up my singing along you monster Ross Doctor Strangelove version is canon
I actually fully rescind my complaint earlier in the campaign that NPCs were just kind of treated as infodump machines. I don’t think I realized at that point how rare it was for more than two sessions to be in the same city. as I commented on the last episode of the campaign, I do think it’s the biggest weakness, that the constantly on the move nature of the game combined with its lethality means continuity is a little nebulous. could maybe do something about that if you were doing Delta Green: Subnet Masks of Nyarlathotep just because there could be remote coordinators who were regularly in contact, but that’s a whole other thing.
Hey, Ross! SMERSH wasn’t just an organization from James Bond novels – the real SMERSH functioned in World War II as a Russian counter-intelligence operation. It’s name was an acronym of the phrase “death to spies” in Russian.
It’s pretty ridiculous when Sean says “I didn’t have a choice” about Killjoy’s death. It was painfully obvious in that scene that he had a ton of other choices and was randomly picking a fight. Even after starting the fight, he was on a busy street in London and could have run away from the melee-only cultists, shouting for police, at any point.
Sad that I won’t likely ever get to run one of my historical Cthulhu scenarios for Sean and Ann, I’m sure he could give great feedback. I enjoyed listening to this campaign, even though I generally think that it’s impossible to sustain a “horror” game over a long-form campaign. When you accept that it’s going to be a pulp adventure experience instead of a moody horror thing, it’s plenty of fun.
@ Ethan C: I’m sad about that too. I wish we were still in the area. Maybe, someday, the stars will align and we’ll be in town at the same time as you or at Gen-Con at the same time as you.
Eh, just transfer to the University of Missouri, and that’ll solve everything.
I’m planning on running a couple of them on Google Hangouts sometime, too. I’ll try to let you know when I do.
If certain faculty there would retire, that might be a possibility ;). Please do let me know about the Hangouts. The time difference is a bit of a bear, but it might work.
Cool! PM me in the forums with your contact info.