Play@YSDC

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking about running a CoC PBP game for some friends of mine, but have never run a campaign by post. Are there any archived games (or games currently under way, for that matter) that you would recommend as a template I can follow for inspiration and practical things, such as organizing threads and managing a game?

Thanks for your suggestions,
Collin

Depends on the type of game you'd want to run.

I'd recommend Raiko's Masks of Nyarlathotep (current game) which has completed the London chapter. Raiko did an unbelievably good job at including threads with timelines, clue lists, and other such details to really help keep people on topic. His time / location stamps were also indispensible when it came to recalling where we were and what to do next. He also used maps when necessary and pictures to orient us to our current location. Not every play by post requires such heavy duty work but I'd have to say that he did a fantastic job. The London threads are a bit fragmented so you'd need guidance to know where to start and where to stop, but the New York ones are easy enough.

If you want to run a game with a multitude of NPCs, locations, and winding threads that touch and separate, Mr. Handy's Zombie Apocalypse is quite stellar. I'm sure he can guide you as to where to look and what to do in order to do a campaign that spreads across a huge area.

If you want to run a game with a small number of separate locations as well as a mix of NPCs and PCs trapped in a certain area where the PCs need to be kept in the dark about what's happening in the next room, my The Last Express game would give good advice on that. Though it's only just started, a quick poke around should give you an idea as to how it works.

As for a plain old completed normal adventure, I'd recommend the awesome "Hurricane Cthulhu" - viewforum.php?f=14.

Of course, there are more awesome games about this forum. Those are just the ones I know much about.

I recommend The Haunting in the Hall of Fame. It's a short game and very good, and it was run by a first-time Keeper. For more complexity, you could check out my own games The Terror Out of Time and The Ninth Planet, also in the Hall of Fame, though they are atypical. They're part of my Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu campaign, and they have things that wouldn't be in a normal game (such as the use of cliffhangers at the end of each episode). Still, they demonstrate using multiple threads when the party is split up, as well as merging threads when people get back together.

Thanks Mr. Handy and Laraqua,

This will definitely give me a broad range of styles for PBP- thanks for your input!

Thanks again,
Collin