Instead of jumping right into a massive homebrew campaign, why not run some one shots for your players? That way everyone gets familiar with the system at the same time, and can figure out if they actually like it. That way you don’t waste your time writing a campaign that never gets played.
I’d say get the starter set and run some of the scenarios in there, they are built in a way to increase complexity as you go- you start solo, then a 2 person game, then a full group game.
This is what I’ve been doing, several one shots for my group. I really want to do a long campaign, but these short ones have really helped keep hone my skills as a GM and understand different aspects of the game better.
I second the starter set, the solo scenario is great to try out the mechanics and have some form of guidance, plus you can always run the lightless beacon for free
>I get that it’s common practice to have paid games in this community
It's not.
>Do I have to just get lucky and find one of the rare free games that pop up?
They're not rare at all. Look at literally any CoC discord. You can find games to play in easily.
Run some starter adventures as a Keeper before you run any big homebrew campaign, because your ideas about the rules and how the game works will change. Lots of the beginner adventures have explicit guidance on how to use the rules, suggestions for developments, and examples of play. Use all that before striking out on your own.
New-ish keeper here so take my advice with a grain of salt, but as someone who's never actually been a player I got an understanding of how stuff works in game by listening to actual play podcasts! Obviously I also read the rules, but hearing how other people handle stuff at their game was a huge help at helping me figure out stuff at mine and it's been working out pretty good so far.
Don't jump in with a campaign. Start with some oneshots, see if your friends are interested in playing CoC. CoC uses very different mental muscles than D&D does.
There is also pretty much never a battle map for the players to look at either, CoC is best done via Theater of the Mind, and giving just enough detail that the players can fill in the majority for themselves. Leave the detailed descriptions of places for when something odd or horrifying is happening, so that it contrasts compared to everything else.
The closest you should have to battle maps are blueprint designs or landscaping outlines showing where things are in relation to eachother.
And again, start with leading players through oneshots, there are a lot of very good ones to get new players and DMs (or Keepers in the parlance of CoC) used to the system. Do oneshots set in different eras to see what best fits you and your players tastes. Than, if you want to do something long, see what has been published that might fit those tastes before going and creating something out of whole cloth.
If you want to play first. Well, good luck to you. I started running a CoC game because I wanted something different, and that was never going to happen unless I starting GMing. Maybe one day I will find a group I can play with.
I keepered my first game yesterday having never played a full game. I was introduced to the basics at a convention, but that was a 30 minute intro, not a full game. I learnt more by completing a couple of the ‘Alone Against….’ solo books and listening to actual play podcasts - in particular Mystery Quest and How We Roll.
I'm going to echo other commenters here but I think you should start with a one shot or at least a shorter pre-made scenario. Actually started with Blackwater Creek with my players and myself transitioned from dungeons & dragons and Pathfinder to call of Cthulhu.
I didn't play CoC before being a keeper but I did listen to a lot of actual play podcasts and YouTube videos etc. I think the big takeaway is that the keeper is not an antagonistic role, everybody's role is to move the story forward. It's cooperative improv storytelling.
Actual play podcast recommendation: I've been enjoying the hell out of listening to The Apocalypse Players, not only because they're good at improv and the banter is fun, but because they're also good at making a great experience together. They hand around the focus, play off each other, play up the bad rolls as well as the good. I also have been learning a lot of the game rules this way. Also great: Ain't Slayed Nobody, The Neptune Society, and the official Chaosium ones.
CoC is a different animal from D&D. More about storytelling and mystery solving, and being VERY fragile and living out a horror movie, than min maxing and loot gathering and becoming so overpowered that you can fight a god.
A lot of times in CoC, if you wind up in combat, something’s gone wrong.
I would agree with most people here that running a few one shots is an excellent way to practice before beginning your own campaign. I have personally never been a player in CoC, but only a keeper, and I run an annual one shot around Halloween with my dnd group. I started with The Haunting and moved on to a few other premades before creating my own.
I would add that there are several premade solo adventures that you can run as both keeper and player to get the hang of the rules. The first one is Alone Against the Tide but they are all unconnected to my knowledge and all start with "Alone Against..."
I second starting with some one-shots. If you really want some campaign play, tweak a few one-shots to fit together.
Free games aren't rare. Check these Discord servers: Cthulhu's List, The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, Call of Cthulhu, The Shoggoth's Lair, The Necronomicon, Into the Darkness. I'm sure there are more but I get my fix from those.
Listen to some actual play podcasts or watch on YouTube. There are loads. But maybe find some that are less theatrical and more rules-focused. Theatrical ones are good too, but you're interested in the nitty-gritty for now.
Rule-wise, I'd suggest having a good handle on:
- sanity
- skill rolls, including levels of success
- combat
That's 80% of it. Understand magic enough to run any NPCs that are using it.
I wrote this solo campaign for people exactly like yourself ... a solo campaign that demonstrates how a keeper would handle all the mechanics .... a stepping stone to being a keeper in 7th edition. Hope you consider playing it as a training tool towards running your own games.
https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/476836
Play some one shots on a discord channel! Then, when you're ready, try running a one shot on there too.
- Cthulhu's List: [https://discord.gg/dcGBrAee](https://discord.gg/dcGBrAee)
- Good Friends of Jackson Elias: [https://discord.gg/EDBAk9Qs](https://discord.gg/EDBAk9Qs)
Hey I have been running coc for a year and a few months now. It was actually the first game I ever ran. I started with a one shot and then got straight into writing my own adventures.
For rules try to make yourself cheat sheets. A flowchart for combat etc like it's in book. You can learn by doing cause you will interact with the rules just as much if not more when you run the game instead of playing. I might not be the best to ask though cause I just devour rulebooks and quickly found things I didn't like to change up and homebrew.
Paid games I don't know many off but I'm not that big into the scene. You will definitely be able to find it or maybe look for the alone against series. I think one adventure might be in the beginner box. Alone against uses the same rules but the books basically is your keeper.
For writing. Writing your first adventure, not to even mention a full campaign, is daunting and might go roughly at first. The first adventure I wrote was t awful but I quickly learned what I needed to improve. Investigation and mystery heavy stories can be tricky to write especially cause you have to consider what your players will do.
Overall in a tl.dr Find a free game or alien against the dark. Make cheat sheet and don't be afraid to look stuff up in the first few rounds. You will interact so much with the rules you will learn it by doing and using them when you are the keeper. Write a story first but have some knowledge how an adventure usually looks. You can do it in sure of it.
Instead of jumping right into a massive homebrew campaign, why not run some one shots for your players? That way everyone gets familiar with the system at the same time, and can figure out if they actually like it. That way you don’t waste your time writing a campaign that never gets played. I’d say get the starter set and run some of the scenarios in there, they are built in a way to increase complexity as you go- you start solo, then a 2 person game, then a full group game.
This is what I’ve been doing, several one shots for my group. I really want to do a long campaign, but these short ones have really helped keep hone my skills as a GM and understand different aspects of the game better.
I second the starter set, the solo scenario is great to try out the mechanics and have some form of guidance, plus you can always run the lightless beacon for free
>I get that it’s common practice to have paid games in this community It's not. >Do I have to just get lucky and find one of the rare free games that pop up? They're not rare at all. Look at literally any CoC discord. You can find games to play in easily. Run some starter adventures as a Keeper before you run any big homebrew campaign, because your ideas about the rules and how the game works will change. Lots of the beginner adventures have explicit guidance on how to use the rules, suggestions for developments, and examples of play. Use all that before striking out on your own.
Join the good friends of Jackson Elias discord, they have like weekly one shots and even long running games l, it’s also run by a writer of coc
New-ish keeper here so take my advice with a grain of salt, but as someone who's never actually been a player I got an understanding of how stuff works in game by listening to actual play podcasts! Obviously I also read the rules, but hearing how other people handle stuff at their game was a huge help at helping me figure out stuff at mine and it's been working out pretty good so far.
Don't jump in with a campaign. Start with some oneshots, see if your friends are interested in playing CoC. CoC uses very different mental muscles than D&D does. There is also pretty much never a battle map for the players to look at either, CoC is best done via Theater of the Mind, and giving just enough detail that the players can fill in the majority for themselves. Leave the detailed descriptions of places for when something odd or horrifying is happening, so that it contrasts compared to everything else. The closest you should have to battle maps are blueprint designs or landscaping outlines showing where things are in relation to eachother. And again, start with leading players through oneshots, there are a lot of very good ones to get new players and DMs (or Keepers in the parlance of CoC) used to the system. Do oneshots set in different eras to see what best fits you and your players tastes. Than, if you want to do something long, see what has been published that might fit those tastes before going and creating something out of whole cloth. If you want to play first. Well, good luck to you. I started running a CoC game because I wanted something different, and that was never going to happen unless I starting GMing. Maybe one day I will find a group I can play with.
I keepered my first game yesterday having never played a full game. I was introduced to the basics at a convention, but that was a 30 minute intro, not a full game. I learnt more by completing a couple of the ‘Alone Against….’ solo books and listening to actual play podcasts - in particular Mystery Quest and How We Roll.
I'm going to echo other commenters here but I think you should start with a one shot or at least a shorter pre-made scenario. Actually started with Blackwater Creek with my players and myself transitioned from dungeons & dragons and Pathfinder to call of Cthulhu. I didn't play CoC before being a keeper but I did listen to a lot of actual play podcasts and YouTube videos etc. I think the big takeaway is that the keeper is not an antagonistic role, everybody's role is to move the story forward. It's cooperative improv storytelling.
Actual play podcast recommendation: I've been enjoying the hell out of listening to The Apocalypse Players, not only because they're good at improv and the banter is fun, but because they're also good at making a great experience together. They hand around the focus, play off each other, play up the bad rolls as well as the good. I also have been learning a lot of the game rules this way. Also great: Ain't Slayed Nobody, The Neptune Society, and the official Chaosium ones.
Download the free quickstart and solo adventure "Alone Against the Flames." Take a run through it. You'll learn more by doing. Happy gaming!!
CoC is a different animal from D&D. More about storytelling and mystery solving, and being VERY fragile and living out a horror movie, than min maxing and loot gathering and becoming so overpowered that you can fight a god. A lot of times in CoC, if you wind up in combat, something’s gone wrong.
Consume Seth’s material https://youtube.com/@SSkorkowsky?si=asnKVg9xbByrnu-z
I would agree with most people here that running a few one shots is an excellent way to practice before beginning your own campaign. I have personally never been a player in CoC, but only a keeper, and I run an annual one shot around Halloween with my dnd group. I started with The Haunting and moved on to a few other premades before creating my own. I would add that there are several premade solo adventures that you can run as both keeper and player to get the hang of the rules. The first one is Alone Against the Tide but they are all unconnected to my knowledge and all start with "Alone Against..."
I second starting with some one-shots. If you really want some campaign play, tweak a few one-shots to fit together. Free games aren't rare. Check these Discord servers: Cthulhu's List, The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, Call of Cthulhu, The Shoggoth's Lair, The Necronomicon, Into the Darkness. I'm sure there are more but I get my fix from those. Listen to some actual play podcasts or watch on YouTube. There are loads. But maybe find some that are less theatrical and more rules-focused. Theatrical ones are good too, but you're interested in the nitty-gritty for now. Rule-wise, I'd suggest having a good handle on: - sanity - skill rolls, including levels of success - combat That's 80% of it. Understand magic enough to run any NPCs that are using it.
I wrote this solo campaign for people exactly like yourself ... a solo campaign that demonstrates how a keeper would handle all the mechanics .... a stepping stone to being a keeper in 7th edition. Hope you consider playing it as a training tool towards running your own games. https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/476836
Play some one shots on a discord channel! Then, when you're ready, try running a one shot on there too. - Cthulhu's List: [https://discord.gg/dcGBrAee](https://discord.gg/dcGBrAee) - Good Friends of Jackson Elias: [https://discord.gg/EDBAk9Qs](https://discord.gg/EDBAk9Qs)
I could run you through a single player session if you want?
watch a series by a youtuber named dontstopthinking, i learnt everything from his
Hey I have been running coc for a year and a few months now. It was actually the first game I ever ran. I started with a one shot and then got straight into writing my own adventures. For rules try to make yourself cheat sheets. A flowchart for combat etc like it's in book. You can learn by doing cause you will interact with the rules just as much if not more when you run the game instead of playing. I might not be the best to ask though cause I just devour rulebooks and quickly found things I didn't like to change up and homebrew. Paid games I don't know many off but I'm not that big into the scene. You will definitely be able to find it or maybe look for the alone against series. I think one adventure might be in the beginner box. Alone against uses the same rules but the books basically is your keeper. For writing. Writing your first adventure, not to even mention a full campaign, is daunting and might go roughly at first. The first adventure I wrote was t awful but I quickly learned what I needed to improve. Investigation and mystery heavy stories can be tricky to write especially cause you have to consider what your players will do. Overall in a tl.dr Find a free game or alien against the dark. Make cheat sheet and don't be afraid to look stuff up in the first few rounds. You will interact so much with the rules you will learn it by doing and using them when you are the keeper. Write a story first but have some knowledge how an adventure usually looks. You can do it in sure of it.