Post by TheUdjat on Dec 4, 2007 13:48:03 GMT -5
Introduction to the Masks of Nyarlathotep
I know this is going to come as a shock to many of you, but Nyarlathotep is the central focus of this campaign.
For those of you who have yet to be exposed to it, Masks is a very large, very dangerous campaign. I mean, moreso than usual in Call of Cthulhu. It crosses several continents, has the potential to spread over a year of game time, and has very vivid, intricate plot. But like any Call of Cthulhu game, its heart is in the mystery of it all. You are investigators, as always, and there is something truly huge to investigate.
This is all freebie knowledge you can make use of when creating your characters: It will involve extensive travel. It will require an active desire to investigate, to delve where it is dangerous to for whatever reason (you can make use of the in-game hooks, ideally, but even insatiable curiosity would be acceptable). It will be extremely deadly, so it would be wise to have easy hooks for your back-up character(s): familial relation, business associate, student, professor, whatever. It would be similarly helpful for your characters to have some kind of tangible pool of the clues you’ve gathered – you don’t want the information to die with you. All of these are just handy things to keep the game moving, and to prevent everyone from getting bogged down with details external to the game’s main focus: Investigation and adventure.
Our story begins thusly –
One or more of the investigators have a friend named Jackson Elias. He is a close friend, although you rarely see each other. Jackson Elias is a writer, and he tends to run around the world researching stories about his focal subject: Death Cults. He focuses on the role of fear in a cult’s control over itself and its region, keeping the locals too terrified to act against it. He always does his own research, and he has managed to secure remarkable interviews in the past. Jackson himself is a hard-nosed skeptic, and has no reason to believe in anything supernatural. He is strong-willed, personable, and resolute. He’s a good person, and well-liked by most of those that know him.
Several days ago he telegrammed his friend(s), alerting them that he was headed to New York (where we will begin our story). In the telegram, he expressed an urgent need for a team of investigators to help with his latest project, which has been a study of the doomed Carlyle Expedition of some years back (more on that later). He asked for you and any that would help to meet him in New York on January 15th, 1925.
That is where we will begin.
(Anyone that wishes to be a close associate of Jackson Elias is welcome to. Any that cannot fit knowing Jackson Elias into their background MUST be associates of someone who does – that person will be dragging them along to the meeting.
Clearly there should be some reason why such a person would be helpful to an investigation, but I leave it to all of you to work out the details.)
Today I will send rolls to start character creation. You are free to use this thread to coordinate your characters so we can get started.
Thanks to everyone for playing.
I know this is going to come as a shock to many of you, but Nyarlathotep is the central focus of this campaign.
For those of you who have yet to be exposed to it, Masks is a very large, very dangerous campaign. I mean, moreso than usual in Call of Cthulhu. It crosses several continents, has the potential to spread over a year of game time, and has very vivid, intricate plot. But like any Call of Cthulhu game, its heart is in the mystery of it all. You are investigators, as always, and there is something truly huge to investigate.
This is all freebie knowledge you can make use of when creating your characters: It will involve extensive travel. It will require an active desire to investigate, to delve where it is dangerous to for whatever reason (you can make use of the in-game hooks, ideally, but even insatiable curiosity would be acceptable). It will be extremely deadly, so it would be wise to have easy hooks for your back-up character(s): familial relation, business associate, student, professor, whatever. It would be similarly helpful for your characters to have some kind of tangible pool of the clues you’ve gathered – you don’t want the information to die with you. All of these are just handy things to keep the game moving, and to prevent everyone from getting bogged down with details external to the game’s main focus: Investigation and adventure.
Our story begins thusly –
One or more of the investigators have a friend named Jackson Elias. He is a close friend, although you rarely see each other. Jackson Elias is a writer, and he tends to run around the world researching stories about his focal subject: Death Cults. He focuses on the role of fear in a cult’s control over itself and its region, keeping the locals too terrified to act against it. He always does his own research, and he has managed to secure remarkable interviews in the past. Jackson himself is a hard-nosed skeptic, and has no reason to believe in anything supernatural. He is strong-willed, personable, and resolute. He’s a good person, and well-liked by most of those that know him.
Several days ago he telegrammed his friend(s), alerting them that he was headed to New York (where we will begin our story). In the telegram, he expressed an urgent need for a team of investigators to help with his latest project, which has been a study of the doomed Carlyle Expedition of some years back (more on that later). He asked for you and any that would help to meet him in New York on January 15th, 1925.
That is where we will begin.
(Anyone that wishes to be a close associate of Jackson Elias is welcome to. Any that cannot fit knowing Jackson Elias into their background MUST be associates of someone who does – that person will be dragging them along to the meeting.
Clearly there should be some reason why such a person would be helpful to an investigation, but I leave it to all of you to work out the details.)
Today I will send rolls to start character creation. You are free to use this thread to coordinate your characters so we can get started.
Thanks to everyone for playing.
