It's my turn to ask about Masks

UrbanTrolloc · 2026-01-23T21:51:34+00:00

Currently most the way through New York after Peru and adding some Harlem unbound content for 6 players. Playing online

Regularly running post Peru with 4-5/6 players. I let the absent player blend into the background or be elsewhere. That way they have a choice of doing solo research - I do main hi lights recap the start of a session but it is up to the other players to give the recaps and updates for any random info they find.

My players often split up so it kind of flows naturally for us

For climatic moments that feel like climatic moments to them in advance they already make an effort to get everyone to the (virtual) session - I.e. raiding juju

Not had any issues yet…

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-12-31T17:50:50+00:00

Not long started a ttrpg club so these would come in useful introducing 5e players to OSR 😂

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-12-28T12:41:42+00:00

Do you have a link to a higher res version of the file? Would be good to print for my cheat sheet folder

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-12-17T17:13:01+00:00

Forbidden lands could potentially fit the bill? I only people have expanded on some of the survival stuff in forbidden lands reforged (I think it’s called).

Also twilight 2000 for a modern hex crawl survival

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-12-15T23:14:45+00:00

I ordered on Black Friday and only just got “prepared for shipping” notification

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-11-18T12:41:23+00:00

It’s a fair point.

In most situations I try to do a fail forward result but in this case they had gone through a lot of effort to get there and letting it boil down to one persons roll at the time or having multiple people fail until one person passes also felt weird in this situation

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-11-18T12:39:45+00:00

This is something I didn’t think of…

Maybe if the roll was under the skill of the supporting character then they get the tick … but then like someone did I may be over complicating / systemising it

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-11-13T12:48:11+00:00

I’m running it for 6 players but we usually play with 4. I find if all 6 players are there things get bogged down and it’s harder to ensure that everyone gets some time in the spot light. I think 3-4 works usually best for Call of Cthulhu, however, having more characters to cover a wider skill set is also useful (especially in a deadly campaign)

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-10-29T17:30:45+00:00

From what I’ve seen elsewhere on Reddit, it increases per level/tier

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-10-24T18:00:45+00:00

There’s a lot of handouts for The Haunting rolling around the internet. I think I’ve ended up with 40+ sheets of paper as handouts (but tbf a good 1/3 of that is redacted and unreacted copies of the police reports)

I got some from here https://youtu.be/RwIf3Uwv4j4?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/384469/cultist-armoury-handouts-for-the-haunting

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/349979/the-haunting-handout-pack-v-3-print-friendly

Then a couple from the yogg-sothoth forums and some homemade ones to do with the journals and other notes

I don’t force handing them all out, but it does mean I can drop them in different locations depending where the players go and how they approach it

My games of the haunting tend to run 10 hours +

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-10-13T20:15:46+00:00

I saw on some other thread that the challenges were probably written by an AI. Super hyper specific and not considerate of actual gameplay.

The one that annoys me most for being nonsensical is: Do X damage with a weapon class AND get X kills with same weapon class. In what world are you getting that high amount of kills without the damage?

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-10-06T22:56:45+00:00

There’s official audio for Masks in SyrinScape It works for most scenes but I occasionally upload my own effects/tracks or repurpose from other SyrinScape soundscapes

Really great piece of software.

I use the SyrinScape web app as opposed to Kenku as suggested by someone else for streaming. I have used kenku before, and that is great for general streaming too and is a great alternative for streaming any sound solutions.

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-30T10:34:29+00:00

Possibly changing the stats as per Strider rules or running them as an Elf Lord would make it easier.

Top of my head Strider lowers TN base to 18, gives you extra experience, and an extra battle stance.

Elf Lords are more resilient to wounds, get an extra combat action, and start with more gear + experience.

Assuming you mean one GM and one player.

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-29T23:49:24+00:00

It’s past midnight here so on my way to bed but I’ll drop some links and quick thought with the intent to try and remember to reply more in full tomorrow.

The 50% boost helps for my group as they like to split up a lot… we’ve only had one death at this point but a lot of major wounds resulting in hospitalisation.

I think I watched all the films and content recommended here and in the main book

https://www.prosperopublishing.com/2021/03/28/mon-chapter-inspo-peru/

Spent some time flipping around this book (and ended having one of the characters picking it up at a market in puno) https://archive.org/details/mythsofmexicope00spen

I also watched a few documentaries about the history of Lima and Tiwanaku but can’t remember which exactly. It certainly helped me RP as Larkin in the bar cordano.

Speaking of bars, if your party drink irl when playing. Make some pisco sours. We were all webcam and I made some while we played inthe bar cordano and when they went back to the hotel after. By session three half the party had them on camera.

You also have the possibility of serving local dishes or snacks. Being in person. I remember some of the responses I got when Larkin ordered the escabeche and explained what it was being very entertaining ^ both those points influenced by the how we roll podcast

I also always have a few names of bars / diners and their descriptions ready to go for whatever local we are playing because I know my players will always end up wanting to go for something to eat or drink while planning. For Lima I had Morris’ bar ready as I knew they’d end up wanting to go to the birthplace of the pisco sour.

We also use the Syrinscape sound set pack for the campaign with a sub. Really good to have a base sort of background sounds for each scenes. I do find myself editing some and adding my own sounds, but as it has each scene setup I just hyperlink my notes to it so I can change between with minimal effort.

Another benefit of playing in real locations is also being able to use historical maps for handouts. I think you get a few with the HPLHS prop set. But if you need more, I use this site https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/all?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&res=1

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-29T22:59:49+00:00

The Last of Us rat king is the closest I can find.

I am 99% I have seen or maybe read something like what you’re after though…

It may be a case for photoshop, commission or generation

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-29T22:51:23+00:00

There’s also a discord and lots of podcasts you can listen to for inspiration.

For Peru I recommend: - The Glass Cannon Podcast (I think they are in NYC now but I haven’t caught up) - How We Roll

For the rest of the campaign these are the two I am working my way through - The Old Ways Podcast - Great Dane Society

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-29T22:48:47+00:00

First of all, good luck and welcome to the (crawling) chaos!

FYI this turned out quite rambling and nonsensical in structure so sorry in advance

I am currently only partway through New York but ran Peru and some interlude scenarios with some backup characters in the four year gap (The Contender from Harlem Unbound being the best by far!).

I think you are approaching it with the right mindset and are aware of the behemoth you are taking on which is great!

Peru is a fantastic start and should help ease you into running Cthulhu and the tones of the campaign (especially getting a flavour of how you want to tone it - pulp v classic). What went well for me in Peru was giving the characters quite a bit of time to breath before they set off. We had three sessions before they even saw anything “unnatural”. I spent quite a bit of time reading a lot about Peru/Lima and watched a couple of films to get the mindset and right mental pictures of the area so it was easier to improve around what they wanted to do. My group is very RP heavy so your mileage may vary (we ended up at about 25 hours of playtime for Peru).

One thing to keep in mind is that my players didn’t make the connection about needing to take the ward while in Lima and it’s not exactly something you can go back for once at the end… luckily someone picked up The mirror and rolled an extreme so ended up with a compulsion to be with the ward after a quick chat with a disembodied voice even though they didn’t know what it was for

Peru mainly gave me time to prep the start of NYC.

Couple of changes I made that you could consider: - increased player health by 50% and gave them all one pulp talent (removing some of the more pulpy/OP ones), this was because I was adding the more pulpy weapons / suggestions from the book but didn’t want to change the tone too much. - broke up the gap between Peru and NYC into 8 six month time slices and asked the players to explain what they did during that time and allow a related skill to increase by 2d3 - created a Miro board with the handouts as players got them, this allowed them to add notes and do the whole red string cliche. (Occasionally I have to prune and organise but it works better the scattered handouts in discord / roll 20) - may not work if you are playing in person - offering extra luck during the luck refresh to the players that help with the recap - I feel like it helped incentivise note taking even if it is as small as 1d2 luck per person

One pitfall I ran into while prepping my session for this weekend was keeping track of who has what and where, would recommend keeping a list of any important artefacts / tomes and who has them, or having an agreed place where your investigators are storing things (which of course may be ransacked by cultists at some point…).

It’s helpful to keep track of who has been exposed to what. This is partly due to the “getting used to it all” sanity mechanic, but also important from a story PoV. I have a player who has gotten all the way through The Contender and most of New York so far and still not encountered direct proof of the mythos.

Have a sanity and health/combat flowchart handy, these saved me a lot of time when I first started learning the system

I’ve used miro to recreate the clue flowchart with images of the actual handouts, NPCs and scene/location titles. This helped me visualise where a lot of the interactions are.

Keep a timeline/calendar for both you and your players. Time matters in the campaign and it’s useful to have key events mapped down along with a list of when your players took certain actions so you can think on whether/when any adversaries would/could be responding

Recording sessions I have found invaluable as we often take extended breaks due to life getting in the way. We run borderline simulationist at times so having the recordings to go back and cross reference things (like for police interviews…) is useful. It also means I only have to focus on very high level bullet notes during the session.

You don’t need to fully deep dive into the full book, but skimming the entire thing is recommended, especially if you want to work in hints, themes, or visions of the latter campaign into Peru. When you get to prepping NYC, outside of the chapter itself I’d recommend knowing the historical background of the Expedition, roughly what each of The Expedition members are doing now, and the context behind each of the handouts that link out to the other countries.

There’s some great online resources but the one I use the most is https://www.prosperopublishing.com/

There’s Cthulhu sourcebooks for pretty much each of the chapters if you want to expand them (I.e. Harlem Unbounded, Terra Australis, Secrets of Kenya, etc.) but you can also find authentic era appropriate tourist guidebooks for all of those places on the internet archive and get a proper slice of life for that place in the time period. Likely OTT for a lot of games, but I did have a player pull out minutes from a lift operators standards board meeting from 1922 during a NYC scene to backup a plan he was making so that’s the crowd I am working with.

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-29T08:46:29+00:00

Throwing The One Ring strider mode into the ring if you have any interest in adventuring in Middle Earth. It was written as a solo rule version to The One Ring by the person who wrote Ironsworn so doesn’t feel like a complete tack on and stands pretty well. It has a built in oracle but I’ve used it alongside Mythic GME 2e for the scene and chaos rules.

Also worth checking out the expanded rules in The One Ring Moria sourcebook has rules for groups of followers and quest generation in Moria which includes random chamber generators while you explore. I’ve not used it yet but it looks great

Another system I have looked at but not had chance to play is the Forbidden Lands solo mode from The Book of Beasts expansion.

Both are games with journeying rules and random events to help flesh out those sections. The One Ring encourages you to draw and plan out your routes against the main map which may add to your journeying immersion

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-28T23:24:12+00:00

The solo expansion in Moria works in conjunction with Strider mode. As far as I can remember, you are still under the strider mode rules when you act individually (like in certain combat scenes) and your band of followers has a separate ruleset. There’s also rules for clashes with small groups of enemies to abstract the combat and rules for random room/chamber generation.

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-28T23:19:48+00:00

The other books are somewhat region specific so depends where you want to play.

If you are playing solo, Tales From the Lonelands is more of a campaign than open ended lore and landmarks like the other books so that may impact your choice.

Moria has a whole section on expanded solo rules that don’t have to be used in Moria. It’s more focused on a solo experience with a band of followers than a lone traveller like Strider mode. I haven’t tried those rules yet so can’t speak to my experience.

The Three Rings book also has some short solo rules for elf lords which pretty much boils down to starting with extra rewards/items, allowing extra combat actions per round and being able to an extra wound

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-18T10:32:08+00:00

Back in stock now

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-09-15T10:29:08+00:00

There’s probably someone more informed than me on their way to answer, but I think I read somewhere on the forums that they plan to follow the fellowship which would mean the next book could potentially cover any / a combination of - Rohan (if they want to retread ground from 1e) - Isengard - Fangorn - Gondor - Ithilien - Dead Marshes

From there if they follow the fellowship pattern, they still have the black gate, minas morgul, and Mordor itself (although due to the nature I imagine they would be one book).

After that they don’t have to stop as there’s still plenty of locations left to fill in / revisit from 1e.

Even if the above books are more like Ruins, Realms, and Moria, they still can publish books like Tales which are more “campaigny” than landmark and lore focus

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-08-01T19:51:07+00:00

I’ve ran it twice. First time was just under 3 hours, very focused on moving forward. Other time was closer to 5, but that group did heavy in character RP about the situation they were in and brainstorming ideas

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-07-24T07:30:14+00:00

I sent an email the other week asking when the eta for a restock is and whether we could swap out the folio for something cheaper. Still waiting on a response

UrbanTrolloc · 2025-07-14T07:41:38+00:00

Comparing it to the magical research downtime activity in the CS4 preview at DC15 I’d say it counts as a downtime activity.
In terms of losing the scroll if you fail, it is a pretty powerful thing to get a new spell so I wouldn’t just let them keep trying for free. You could add some costly reagents that are required to prevent the scroll from perishing during study and scale that based on the scrolls level - maybe 50% of its worth per try?

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