After-Action Report #1: "Dead Light"

In which I take a break from world-building and campaign construction to talk about my experience actually running the blasted thing...

It occurs to me that in my first 6 posts on this blog, I haven't given any kind of CV for myself. I just started typing! By way of context, then, let me say this: 

• I am a fairly new GM in general. Across several systems, I've probably GM'd 30 sessions in the last 10 years. (I took a long break from the hobby). 
• I am new to Call of Cthulhu 7th ed. I played 5th edition maybe 8 or 9 years ago, and ran a few sessions of Cthulhu Invictus during that time. 
• I am much more comfortable as a writer than as a "live" GM. Storytelling via written materials comes pretty naturally to me. I've written 3 best-selling Adventures for the 7th Sea system (and a bunch of other supplemental materials for that setting, 5 best-sellers in all - check them out here, if you like!).
• I've also created a bunch of handouts and supplementary materials, as you've seen in the earlier posts on this blog.

So one thing I want to do on this blog is document my attempts to become a better "live GM," working on my in-the-moment skills to supplement the preparation/story planning work I already do.

One thing that I've learned recently is that when I run a scenario that I've written, I do pretty well. When I run one written by someone else, I sometimes struggle to keep things moving smoothly. 

I think this is a function, primarily, of organizing the information. The truth is, I find that most pre-written scenarios don't play that well for meat the table, as written. Most are written in long prose, with occasional bolding of key concepts. What works a little better for me is more of an outline, where I can get key information about locations, NPCs and monsters at-a-glance without hunting through paragraphs. 

All of that, I think, was in evidence at my first CoC 7th ed. session, which I ran last night. I introduced the Investigators of the Vienna Club to their first scenario, "Dead Light." I think I did a pretty good job setting up the overall setting, and embodying the NPCs with believable characteristics and motivations. 

Where I think I could have done a little better was: 

• Describing details of the scene. Improving in this will help with immersion, and will help the players figure out where their Investigators are in relation to everything else, since I don't really use minis or battle maps very much. Some things I could have done specifically here: 
• Describe the details of each room and building the Investigators walked into. More sense-descriptions are good, as would be naming more "things" in each place, even if they aren't plot-relevant. 
• Describe distances and relative position better: how far away is the Dead Light? How fast does it move? How close is the drunken bar patron to them? How big is the house?
• Be willing to threaten the Investigators. I have a tendency to back off a threat when it might really harm the Investigators, partly I think because I want to see them make it through to the end of the story. I need to be willing to step up potential harm in a believable way. In the Dead Light scenario, I could have done things like: 
• Used an actual Chase sequence when the Dead Light pursued them out of the house towards the diner. 7th ed. has a pretty good, if somewhat complicated, mechanic for this, but I am leery of trying it out until I'm more comfortable with basic mechanics. 
• Called for 1 or 2 more Hard rolls for Drive Auto in the storm, to force them to get out of the car when they knew what was out there. 

The Session also ended pretty quickly, about 2 and a half hours. I'm not sure that was a problem - the Investigators figured out pretty quickly that electricity is a weakness of the Dead Light, and one of them was an Electrical Engineer, so they came up with a workable plan pretty quickly. 

They didn't seem to want to get too involved with the NPCs' interpersonal dramas, instead being focused on getting Emilia (the Living Plot Hook!) to safety and getting back on the road to Verdun. If I were running it again, I would have set up a much more tense tableau when they got back to the diner. Marie would have pulled a gun and be aiming it at Jacques, with her wanting to go out in the storm and him both being protective of her and ashamed that she was willing to go out when he wasn't. With the Dead Light in pursuit behind them and a powder keg inside the "safety" of the building, this would have been an awesome climax. Oh well. Next time!

Stats from this session: 

• Investigators killed: 0 (in fact, no wounds! I need to try harder ;-) )
• Investigators insane: 1! Poor Mr. Caine the Egyptologist was given a nasty shock by the sight of the half-charred corpse of Claude. He later volunteered to read the Doctor's Journal, and the disturbing content there pushed him over the edge into a temporary bout of paranoia. 
• Plot hooks for future payoffs planted: 2! The medal went over well, but the propaganda pamphlet (which is the first reference to "En Kalif") went mostly ignored. 
• Fun had: By all!

'Til next time!



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Want more of what I do? I have a number of best-selling Adventures and GM guides for the 7th Sea system available via DriveThruRPG! They are reasonably popular and shockingly inexpensive, so check them out!

I'll soon be working on writing my first-ever CoC scenario for publication, giving it the same "behind-the-scenes development" treatment you've seen so far - so watch this space for future posts on that topic!