Bill and I are back with the final episode recounting our games from Dexcon 2012. Today’s episode is about Cthulhu Dark, a rules-light game of Lovecraftian Horror by Graham Walmsley. The adventure is titled ‘A Head of His Time’, and it involves Andrew Mellon and his family gathering the artwork that Mellon intends to use to establish the National Gallery of Art. In addition to talking about the adventure, we also talk about the mechanics of Cthulhu Dark as well as Bill’s ideas on what it feels like when roleplaying. The episode is one hour and 10 minutes long. Enjoy the show!
Mel
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Hey guys,
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed this episode. Entertaining and inspiring enough for me to drag Cthulhu Dark out and use it on my players.
Matt,
Great! Tell us how the game went.
Mel
We didn’t get to finish up the game sadly, but I ran enough to be impressed by how elegantly Cthulhu Dark works in play.
I also really dug what you guys said about how suspense generated by knowing what was coming could be just as effective a technique in horror games as confronting the players with something completely unknown.
I say again, well done.
Matt,
Your comment about letting the players know what is coming has me thinking about an Ashen Stars game I am preparing. It is more of a murder mystery than a horror story, but the mistake I am making is thinking the fun is over once the players identify the murderer. They still have to find sufficient evidence for the courts! So things like the Vas Mal ‘dreamsight’ ability may show the culprit committing the murder in his dreams but are dreams evidence in court? Or what if someone else is dreaming of the murder because they witnessed it? Is the person dreaming what he saw? Or is he dreaming what he suspects? Or fears? I’m getting more enthused just thinking about it!
Mel