Casting Shadows

Recently, I was asked to run the sixth edition of Call of Cthulhu by Ivan Podgwaite who you may know from his IvanMike1968 YouTube channel and the varied Actual Play sessions we have shared on his channel or mine. Although we have played cosmic horror games before, getting CoC in its softcover 6th edition guise with a set of other used games sparked a realization in him that he had not actually gotten to play any edition of the game, nor really that take on BRP. I was happy to oblige.

The Pitch

In keeping with the strengths of BRP as seen in that edition of Call of Cthulhu, the pitch we went with was for an open-ended campaign that would start with a single character and add more characters (as well as players) as it went on. It was to be run with a focus on in-character play, with a hope for, but not insistence on, the In-Character As-Character experience.

At the time of writing, we have played four sessions online, each running about 90 minutes of play with some pre- and post-game discussions. The next session is scheduled for later on this week. We are recording and sharing the sessions and each recording is being edited for time and to add in small dramatic flourishes and informative highlights for those who choose to watch them. The group has now grown to include three players and there are 4 active characters involved in what is quickly becoming an unbelievable investigation.

The Players

In addition to Ivan, the campaign (so far!) includes Joe of the Hindsightless and Weal or Woe podcasts, and Brian Courtemanche whose name likely seems very familiar to those who keep up to date with Chaosium scenario releases.

The Characters

We began with Terrence McSweeney, a cub reporter for the Boston Post (Ivan) being asked to prise information out of his old high-school chum and former golden gloves champion turned PI, Eddie Driscoll. Something fishy was going on with a local family of means that would make for great copy and the editor leaned hard on Terrence to go get the dirt.

Terrence soon found it necessary to recruit Callum McInnes, (Joe), a true-crime reporter of his acquaintance. McInnes, worried about the oncoming winter chill, loss of work, and the deepening economic depression agreed to tag along without asking any questions. When he got there, to his credit, he did not shy away from the grim details his sharp eye exposed. These two, after a horrifying night they shudder to remember, sought out the expertise of Alfred Smalls (Brian), a local antiquarian and antique dealer to help them figure out what was going on.

The Investigation

Eddie was obviously suffering from a concussion and was unable to provide much in the way of witness testimony. Worse, the scene in his office was impossible. It began with a vanishing socialite, revealed dismemberment and body parts incomprehensibly embedded in walls, and kept returning to a pageless book cover that seemed to be feasting on spilled blood to repaginate itself.

Who took Albert Gavigan? What does his disappearance have to do with the bloodthirsty book? What does the Irish Mob in Boston and the new outfit that has taken a huge slice of their territory on the docks have to do – if anything – with any of this? Who is the terrifying tattooed-face man who seems to run that new outfit? Did he really kill and revive Mickey O’Shaughnessy?

There are lots of questions.

The Game

As the Keeper of Arcane Lore, I have a lot of answers, but as an open-ended campaign, there is no set story through or toward which to play. We have characters. Some are player characters; some are pool characters the players may adopt if they wish or if they lose a character. Some are NPCs. Each character has a certain amount of skill, time, and resources to use to accomplish goals defined by their motivations and experiences in play. They may or may not be successful. This applies to the NPCs as much as it does to the PCs. No story is intended one way or another, and any story told of play is in hindsight and is purely a by-product of the decisions which define play: our actions, reactions, and interactions as the characters.

In the imagined situation these characters and their decisions create and keep in motion, I have presented the players with some curious and upsetting details. As the clock ticks on, Terrence and Callum have followed their motivations, their curiosity, and their urge to find fame and fortune in breaking this case open in the papers. Smalls has found the secrets of the blood-thirsty book and its intimations about one Ludvig Prinn to be so fascinating it is worth heaving his massive bulk out of his shop and apartment on Newbury Street to uncover the truth of them.

While I prefer not to record or stream this sort of campaign, this seemed like an ideal opportunity to share what I love about BRP not just with these players, but with strangers on the Internet. That is the purpose of the Casting Shadows blog, podcast, and YouTube Channel, afterall. So, to that end, how is the game being run and shared?

Our Campaign on YouTube

To help facilitate but also expose techniques which aid in imagining the character’s perspective, I have been choosing to offer my description as the voice of the characters’ senses and basic understanding of the world, their place in it, and the skills and abilities they bring to bear on it. Rolling has been minimized and handled under the automatic success rule of BRP so as to reduce the number of disruptions to the flow of information as the character might perceive it. As we are playing 6th edition, the players have no metacurrency to spend and no rules to support making decisions on the story layer of play. There are no re-rolls or boosts that transform a failed roll into a success. Further, the imagined world around them will be treated as a consistent one with its own rules and logic, its own madness and magic, all of which are to be explored by the players through their characters in play, not created.

In this spirit of exploration and imagined experience, it’s up to the players to choose to perceive, act, react, and interact on the character layer, In-Character As-Character.

There is a learning curve to this. Most gamers have a habit of rapid switching between speaking for their character, speaking about their character, and speaking for themselves or about the rules. The type of play being offered – if embraced – steps away from things which do not concern the experience of the character as much as is practical and enjoyable.

The Playlist

As play goes on, videos have been and continue to be added to a private playlist which as you read this is likely public in whole or in part. The link will be HERE.

The playlist contains some Leagues of Cthulhu sessions for contrast, an introductory video for the campaign, the edited sessions of actual play described earlier, and videos going behind the scenes for discussion, description of specific techniques, and so on.

In the session videos, there are times where my interactions with the players is my verbal description of what their characters’ senses, skills, and expertise reveal to them. If they explore that world through statements of action, description of reaction, and in-character interaction, the world will respond to them in kind. If they ask me a rules question, I will answer it as the Keeper. If play brings us to a point where a roll or alteration of the character sheet is required, I will call for such as the Keeper. It will be evident in contrast how play is different in these moments. In our pre- and post-session discussions, and in other supporting podcasts and videos, the players may give voice to their experiences in play. Ivan has already begun to do so, sparking a series of video responses in old-fashioned YouTube style.

There will be other times in the videos where I run scenes or perhaps whole sessions in a more typical manner with its usual switching of attention between layers of play. Again, the hope for this is to show the difference, find out how it seems to the players, and how it appears to whatever audience chooses to form around this campaign.

Interaction

For those who read this blog, I hope this all sounds interesting and I further hope that you will want to join in the sharing by interacting with us through the comments here and on YouTube, or on your own blogs, podcasts, and the like.