Casting Shadows

I could tell you that this is the sixteenth day of #RPGaDAY2025 but that would be a lie and I would never intentionally deceive you. However, deceive is our prompt today and I am happy to explore some appropriate elements of deception with you, Dear Reader, in regard to the campaign pitch we are considering. Before we do that, though, let’s clear the air about the date. Today is the fifteenth day of August which makes it the fifteenth day of our RPGaDAY event for 2025, and our prompt is Deceive.

Day 15: Deceive

Due to the themes of and opportunities for Corruption in Leagues of Gothic Horror and Leagues of Cthulhu, there is real value in presenting tough decisions which can compromise the moral certainty characters hold of what is right and what is wrong. This in turn can end up leading to a loss of certainty on where the line is between good and evil. Corruption as a mechanism in the game, demonstrates how that slide changes people.

Where that can be made more interesting, I feel, particularly with this campaign is that given how Tsathoggua’s cult is portrayed in the source literature, there is strong evidence of past cults uncovering hidden truths – seeing through deception in other words. Once aware, they began to work against the Sleeper. Obviously, a mystery cult with indoctrinations and inductions into higher levels of that mystery, will be an organization which requires a lot of deceit. Can the characters work with that to reach their own goals? What would that mean? What compromises might that mean?

Moreover, what acts of deception will the characters need to perpetrate on friends, family, allies, and society as the campaign plays out, and what will that mean? How significant will these acts of deception be? What moral compromises might they entail?

To make things even more interesting, with the cult operating in various levels of weaponized deception, and the characters being tempted into their deceptions (ostensibly for the greater good), how much trust can we give characters like the patron, Neslinger? What is he not telling, or telling with an acceptable or unacceptable margin of error in truthfulness? Can we trust him?

What if he knows of the cult because he was and is a member? A member using the characters to improve his own position within the cult? What if he has a more nefarious purpose than ambition?

What could the Sleeper be roused to do…?

See you tomorrow for Day 16: Overcome