GM-Blogging #1: Introducing Masks of Nyarlathotep

In an effort to distract myself (and you) from election-related anxiety, I am jumping back into table-top roleplaying games as a Game Master (the referee and main storyteller, for those of you who are new to this) for the first time since 2012. And for my first campaign, I’ve decided to run one of my favorite adventures, Call of Cthulhu’s (a horror RPG set in the works of H.P Lovecraft) Masks of Nyarlathotep and do a bit of blogging about it.

The first session is scheduled for this Sunday evening, which means there’s no gameplay stuff to report. However, I can talk a bit about the prep work I’ve done to get everything ready to go for my doomed team of investigators.

Masks of Nyarlathotep is a beloved adventure; despite the fact that it was published in 1984, it still wins polls taken today for “best RPG adventure ever.” So what makes this adventure stand out? To me, there are several main things that this adventure does really well:

1. It does a great job of balancing mystery and investigation, adventure, combat, horror, all the things that people want from a game set in H.P Lovecraft’s universe. Not coincidentally, it also delivers a lot of different playtypes for people with different tastes – if you like combat, you’re going to get combat, if you like solving mysteries, there’s lots of that, if you like roleplaying in the Jazz Age, there’s lots of that.
2. It is a genuine sandbox game in ways that a lot of RPGs have never quite managed to pull off – after the initial chapter in New York, players can decide where in the world they want to go, whether it’s London, Shanghai, Cairo, Kenya, or Australia, and do the adventure in any order they want to. As a result, no two games of Masks are the same.
3. Despite being a sandbox game, there is a really engaging overarching plot that connects all the different points in the map, engages the players and makes them want to solve the mystery, and has some really amazing setpieces that (if you as the DM can successfully guide the party a bit) will blow your players’ minds.

Because Masks is so beloved, it also means that creators and fans have been improving it for almost as long as I’ve been alive. The game has gone through four editions, the most recent one from 2010. There is an amazing fan-made Companion that offers a whole bunch of supplemental content that you can use to smooth over a few rough patches or throw experienced players a curveball. If the DM is willing to put in the prep work, you can make this adventure really special.

So what have I done to prepare?

(If you’re playing in my game, DO NOT READ below the cut…)

Well, the first thing I’ve done is get the handouts ready.

Masks has no less than 45 official handouts, so that rather than just listen to the GM read a bunch of boxed text, the players have the actual clues in their own hands (just like their characters do) to try to solve the mystery. The Companion adds a bunch more optional handouts, so that when investigators are reading through occult manuscripts of forbidden lore, they actually have something to read as opposed to just being told what they’ve read. So I spent a good bit of yesterday and today printing and cutting out handouts:

The second thing I did was to re-familiarize myself with the game system (it’s been a while since I played Call of Cthulhu and the GM needs to know how people do skill rolls, combat encounters, going insane, and doing magic) and the adventure itself. There’s a lot of NPCs to keep in your head, and since you’re the one who needs to answer your players’ questions and spending time at the table leafing through books slows down play, you want to know what’s going on. I also consulted the fan-made Companion for some useful additional material that will make the adventure run more smoothly and more colorfully – more description of the hotel the adventure starts, backgrounds for murder victims in case the investigators decide to follow up that angle, a bonus scene set at a funeral where the players can meet some useful NPCs they might otherwise not think to contact…

The third thing I did was to develop the atmosphere. Since the game starts on New Years’ Day 1925, I did some research on major events that happened in 1924 to give the players a sense of historical context. I’ve found a Spotify playlist of music from the 1920s to put on in the background to get people in the right mindset to roleplay as well as rollplay.

Now all I need are my players to torment entertain.

NEXT UPDATE: Sunday evening.