A Novice Keeper’s Journal: Beginning Masks of Nyarlathotep

Part 1 – Getting Started

Introduction

It all began about two months ago when I found myself wondering: what is the best pre-written RPG adventure ever written? I wasn’t looking for a single answer, but rather hoping to make a list. I delved into countless posts on Reddit and forums, and chatted with experienced players. Throughout this whole process, one game kept coming up again and again, frequently acclaimed by many as the greatest campaign ever written: “Masks of Nyarlathotep” from the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

Without hesitation, I decided I had to run Masks of Nyarlathotep. But there was one huge problem: I had never even seen a single game of Call of Cthulhu played. The internet, meanwhile, was full of comments advising inexperienced Keepers not to run this game, detailing its challenging nature. Rather than deterring me, these comments only fueled my motivation.

As I start writing this, it’s been about two months since I decided to run Masks, and tomorrow we’ll be playing our 3rd session (the initial prep took about a month). Whether I succeed or fail, I plan to share how this journey plays out for me and my group from time to time. I hope my experiences might be useful to others out there -yes, I’m talking to you- lurking in the far reaches of the internet, researching and wanting to run Masks.

Who Am I

Since everyone’s TTRPG background is different, I think it’s helpful for you to know my relationship with TTRPGs for comparison. While I’ve never played Call of Cthulhu, I wouldn’t call myself inexperienced. For 15 years, I’ve been the “forever GM” involved with various systems like D&D, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, and Fate. Consequently, I’d say I possess the skills traditionally expected of a GM. However, until just last week –excluding the two one-shots I recently ran (which I’ll discuss later) and the first three sessions of Masks- I had never played or run a horror-themed RPG (I played Alien last week). Therefore, heading into this adventure, I had no real data to claim I understood or could satisfy the unique demands of this genre.

I’m not entirely alien to the world of Call of Cthulhu, though. About five years ago, I read most of Lovecraft’s stories. As a fan of horror-thriller movies, I’d already consumed many films that could be considered Lovecraftian. I’d say I have a basic familiarity with horror literature and cinema beyond that, and this familiarity has proven quite useful on this journey.

Masks of Nyarlathotep

So, why was I so stubborn, so eager to run this game that clearly seemed beyond my skills and experience? I could have gained experience with the Call of Cthulhu system first, run shorter campaigns, true. I think there were basically two reasons for this. Firstly, as a confident GM who was getting a bit bored of running the same old things, the idea of running such a massive and complex game in a system I didn’t know, and in a genre I wasn’t used to, felt “challenging.” I felt like I’d hit a plateau as a GM for a while, and decided this game could be the opportunity I was looking for. Secondly, the game genuinely intrigued me!

“Masks of Nyarlathotep” is a story set in the 1920s, spanning the globe. The mere thought of exploring cities from different cultures in an era without computers or phones, where even intercontinental flights weren’t possible, and experiencing a conspiracy woven like an intricate web around the entire world, was incredibly appealing to me.

For those curious, the countries the game takes place in are: Peru, America, England, Egypt, Kenya, China, Australia

But How? Planning

As soon as I decided to run Masks of Nyarlathotep, I started researching it online. Since Masks is quite well-known, I found plenty of resources. I read responses to posts from people like me, new to this undertaking, and articles by experienced Keepers who had run the game one or more times. Although what I read often advised inexperienced Keepers like myself to try shorter, easier games, I didn’t let it intimidate me. Still, these warnings helped me better understand that I needed to think this through carefully and prepare thoroughly.

The Reddit community at r/callofcthulhu became my biggest resource and helper during this phase. Alongside that, I browsed countless forums and blog posts and laid out a simple plan:

1- I needed to learn the Call of Cthulhu system.

2- I needed a party willing to embark on this journey with me.

3- I needed to gain at least some experience with the Call of Cthulhu system.

4- I needed inspiration within the Lovecraftian horror genre to generate ideas and prepare a better game.

5- I needed to read Masks of Nyarlathotep cover-to-cover once to understand the story and get it straight in my head.

6- I needed to prepare the game itself.

The Call of Cthulhu System

This isn’t a system review, so please adjust your expectations accordingly. Still, I won’t try to be brief and will detail my experience with the system, covering all the points I think are important. If you’re not interested, feel free to skip to the next section.

Call of Cthulhu uses a d100 system. In its most basic form, you have abilities and skills, each with a score out of 100. When you roll a d100, if you roll equal to or less than that score, you succeed. Let’s say your Climb skill is 60. If you roll a d100 and get 60 or below, you manage to climb; if you roll 61 or higher, you fail. The rest of the system builds on this foundation.

Compared to rule-heavy games like Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu is quite streamlined. I don’t think anyone familiar with D&D would find Call of Cthulhu particularly complex. I didn’t find any part especially difficult to learn. Since I already liked d100 systems, I started with an automatic positive bias towards Call of Cthulhu, and as I read on, my positive views only grew.

Of course, there were some parts I didn’t quite like or that didn’t click for me, and I looked for my own solutions. Before diving into specifics, I want to state that I’m very new to this system, still learning, and my opinions might change completely over time. Therefore, I don’t expect anyone to share my views; you should seek advice from experienced players to learn the system. If you have suggestions or comments on what I say, you’d be helping me immensely!

Sanity

Sanity is one of the core mechanics of this system. It’s the mechanical representation of the fear central to the game and the human psyche facing things so much larger than itself. Naturally, it’s crucial and needs to be used well.

My main issue with Sanity was that the Bouts of Madness table felt inadequate. I assumed it would be insufficient from the moment I saw it, and in the two one-shots I ran, I didn’t use the table. Instead, I asked my players to determine the effects themselves. However, my solution failed; my players weren’t as creative as I’d hoped during those one-shots. Because of this, I decided to use the table when starting Masks. But this brought back the problem I initially anticipated: the effects started feeling repetitive.

Not only that, but the process of rolling for Sanity, then for Sanity damage, then for Bouts of Madness seemed to break the game’s flow too much, and getting back into the story afterwards was already difficult. On top of that, roleplaying the effects of the Sanity loss while returning to the narrative was challenging for everyone, and these moments became the less enjoyable parts of the game. Although there were a few good roleplaying moments, overall, this part of the experience was disappointing. My players also brought this up with me, confirming I wasn’t just making the problem up.

I haven’t solved this issue yet and would love to hear any suggestions you might have. For the next session, I’ve developed this approach to try: When a Sanity roll is required, I’ll state the potential Sanity damage and then give the players a short amount of time. During this time, without talking and as quickly as possible, the players will handle the rolls – whether they take damage, how much, and if needed, the Bout of Madness roll. Afterwards, I’ll give a brief recap of where we left off and let the players start roleplaying. We’ll see how this works. I also found extended tables for Bouts of Madness from this  reddit post. I’ll share how these changes turn out in my next post.

Initiative

I’ve never been fond of initiative rolls; the extra roll at the start of every combat always bothered me. Call of Cthulhu handles this nicely. No initiative roll! Instead, everyone acts in order of their DEX score, and sometimes you can get bonuses to your DEX for this purpose. The only apparent downside is that the turn order might become predictable after a while. I addressed this by telling my players I might occasionally make some changes to the order based on my own judgment, and got their okay.

Chasing

I don’t recall ever liking chase rules in any system. So, it wasn’t surprising that I didn’t like Call of Cthulhu’s when I read them either. I took a few minor notes and decided to run chase scenes the way I always have: a combination of roleplaying and occasional skill checks like CON.

Optional Rules

I included the optional rules for Spending Luck, Recovering Luck points, and Mythos Hardened into my game. All three seem like rules that make the game easier. I added Spending and Recovering Luck to give players an extra option during gameplay, and Mythos Hardened because I wanted to provide some help with managing Sanity.

Difficulty/Death

Call of Cthulhu is designed to be particularly lethal. The fact that you can die quickly for a wrong step is one of the game’s foundational elements. It’s probably a necessary element to create tension. As a GM coming from less lethal systems, who encourages players to bond with their characters and rarely kills them off, I don’t think I’ve fully adapted mentally yet. Both through the optional rules I added and by giving each player an extra 50 skill points – which the Masks book only recommends for pre-gens – I’ve projected my own understanding onto the game. But I know even these won’t be enough to save my players. That’s not my expectation anyway. I explained to my players that each of them would likely die multiple times, that dying is normal, and that they should keep backup characters ready. In one of the one-shots I ran, the entire party died. I’m aware of how quickly the system can kill someone; still, how well I can handle such situations remains to be seen during the campaign. I’ll try to find a balance. But I’m aware that while searching for my own balance, I’ve slightly disrupted the system’s inherent balance, and I’ll see the consequences over time.

Combat

I’m not a GM who enjoys long combats with lots of dice rolling, and my players feel similarly. Call of Cthulhu isn’t a system that specifically focuses on this either. Still, I thought running combat strictly by the book, especially when firearms are involved, would create a slow and unenjoyable game for us. Therefore, I adapted some rules to suit us better. I almost entirely removed the Aiming and Target Size modifiers and the Automatic Fire rules.

Standard vs. Pulp

Honestly, I know very little about this distinction. As I understand it, Pulp focuses more on the adventure and combat aspects of the game and makes players more powerful. Neither I nor my group had expectations leaning that way for this game. We decided to play the game as originally written, in its standard form.

Investigation

Compared to the systems my players and I are used to, Call of Cthulhu demands much more player initiative and provides space for players to conduct their own investigations. Typically, when D&D adventurers face an obstacle, their usual response is to either fight it directly or use social skills to talk their way past it. Call of Cthulhu can punish such approaches very quickly. What the game expects from players is to first research the problem, then think about it, maybe tail someone secretly, gather information by talking to neighbors, sneak into their room and rummage through their belongings, etc. As a Keeper, if your party is accustomed to a D&D-like gameplay loop, you might want to brief them on this. I started by holding my players’ hands a bit in this regard, trying to give them time to adjust. I hope they’ll increase their initiative over time.

The Party

I already knew what kind of party I wanted for Masks. I talked to some people I was already running games, or planning to start a game with.  Everyone was a bit skeptical at first, as none of us had ever played Call of Cthulhu before. To overcome this skepticism, I invited everyone I might want in my game to two different one-shots. This way, both they and I could see what a Call of Cthulhu game would be like. As a result, everyone currently at my table participated in at least one of these games, and everyone who joined was pleased with the initial results and agreed to embark on such an adventure.

My group consists of 6 people. Although I’m usually used to running for fewer players, it hasn’t been particularly challenging so far. I’m quite happy with them. They seem ready to put in the effort to make this a good game, and they genuinely seem interested. While most are familiar with D&D-like games, I already had an ongoing Vampire game with three of them, and the others were eager to play roleplay-focused games. Two are young actresses, which brings a lot to the table.

One-Shots

Jumping straight into Masks of Nyarlathotep without ever having played Call of Cthulhu seemed improper to me. I wanted to get it right. So, I decided to run a couple of one-shots first, and once I felt ready, I’d start Masks.

The Call of Cthulhu system is excellent for running one-shots, and there are many great pre-written one-shot scenarios available. From these, I chose “The Necropolis,” the first scenario in Gateways to Terror, and “The Haunting,” a Cthulhu classic.

The Necropolis

A short scenario intended to last about 2 hours. I ran it with a large group and modified some parts, so our playtime stretched closer to 4 hours. Being designed as short, some elements expected from a Call of Cthulhu game are naturally simplified. Nevertheless, it was a very impactful game for me. It served as an experimental playground for figuring out how to build tension for my players, how to use light sources, darkness, and sound. All the games I’ve run since have been shaped by what I liked and the inspiration I drew from this first game.

The Haunting

Perhaps the most played Call of Cthulhu one-shot ever. A true classic. There’s countless content about it online already. The Haunting has everything you look for in a Call of Cthulhu game. It’s rich, offers players many choices, and can end in many different ways. Just as The Necropolis was inspiring for me as a Keeper, I think The Haunting was inspiring for the players. Playing this game, they got to see what Call of Cthulhu is like and the endless potential in the games they could play next.

These two one-shots provided me with a foundation for running a Lovecraftian horror/thriller game. I was planning to decide when to start Masks after running The Haunting. My plan was to identify my shortcomings in The Haunting and chart a course accordingly. But The Haunting went so well that, after discussing it with my players, we decided to start Masks right away.

Inspiration

As soon as I decided to run Masks, I acquired a collection of Lovecraft’s complete stories and listed films I could watch. I wasn’t used to running games in this genre, so I needed to immerse myself in it. I read the first volume of the three-volume complete works of Lovecraft before preparing Masks. The rest I’m keeping by my bedside to dip into whenever I need a jolt of inspiration.

The article  Three Clue Rule was also incredibly helpful in thinking about how to handle clues in an investigation-themed game.

Since films that could be considered Lovecraftian normally find their way onto my watchlists anyway, many films that should be on such a list are missing below. Maybe I’ll list them someday, but for now, I’ve limited my list only to those I watched for the first time or rewatched during the month between deciding to run Masks and actually starting.

Please remember these aren’t direct film reviews, and my comments are primarily within the context of my Masks preparation.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: I rewatched this specifically because it was one of the films recommended by Masks itself. Honestly, it was the least satisfying film on this list for me. Sure, it’s a classic film, and I had fun watching it with popcorn. But it was too action-focused and definitely not a good example for the Cthulhu world. Although the book recommends this film for reasons like seeing Peru in that era, the film does this quite superficially.

Color out of Space (2019): Gave me some things to think about, at least visually, regarding Sanity. It felt like it might have been more beneficial for my players to watch than for me.

The Lighthouse: While how Lovecraftian this film is can be debated, it was quite useful by prompting me to think about madness and human psychology.

Dagon: A classic Lovecraftian narrative. Could be helpful for those new to Lovecraft.

The Resurrected (1991): I watched this because I love the story, which also makes it impossible for me to give an objective review.

Fitzcarraldo: Another film recommended in the Masks book. Although not a Lovecraftian film, it was perhaps the most impactful among the films I listed. It played a huge role in helping me visualize what Peru was like in those years.

Even after doing all of the above, I still wouldn’t have had any idea what an actual Masks game would look like, since I hadn’t seen any Call of Cthulhu game played besides the two I ran myself. As a solution, I decided to find and watch a Masks game online. I started watching the Masks series on  The Glass Cannon channel and watched 3 episodes, which helped everything settle a bit more in my mind.

Reading Masks of Nyarlathotep

All the comments online insisted I should read Masks of Nyarlathotep at least once cover-to-cover before starting to run it, which made perfect sense. I would have planned to do this for any campaign anyway, even if no one had suggested it. There are many reasons they specifically mention this for Masks. Masks is a truly massive and complex story. It takes place in many locations and features a vast number of NPCs. It offers players a lot of choices, and not knowing the story well can cause trouble when you can’t predict what your players will do, ask, or where they’ll go next.

So, naturally, I opened the book and started reading with intense focus. I read the Peru and America chapters with utmost attention. Things started getting complicated in England. After that, realizing everything was becoming a jumble, I changed my reading style. Until then, I had been trying to read everything and commit every single detail to memory. But I realized that doing so for such a huge game was, at least for me, impossible.

As a solution, from England onwards, I decided to carefully read only the parts essential to the story, skimming over the rest. I already have a style that involves lengthy prep sessions. I believe I can manage this by preparing well before sessions and, when we change chapters, reading the new chapter with full attention. Right now, I have the general outline of the story in my head; I could run Peru and America for the players with no further prep. I couldn’t run the rest, but I think that’s okay. Studying the countries we’re about to visit just before we go should be sufficient.

Impressions

I don’t want to give spoilers in this post, so I won’t go into lengthy detail, but I can say it sufficiently met my expectations. I feel like I understand why people praise this story so much.

They’ve prepared a lot for the Keeper too. I’m particularly curious about how useful the clue diagrams will be, but my game is still too early for that.

I found the information about the era and locations insufficient, but that’s probably related to my own expectations. For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this game is being able to visit different parts of the world in the 1920s atmosphere, so naturally, I expected to see more material on this. The game touches on practical details like how banks worked or communication methods back then, but these aren’t enough to truly feel the world of the era. For these reasons, I’m doing my own research about the regions and sprinkling it into the game.

Racism & Sexism

We’re not a group that shies away from such themes. Since the game is set in the 1920s, I expected to find more material on these themes in the book, but that wasn’t the case. I should mention that I read the 2018 version of the book and am only speaking for that one; I can’t make any comparisons.

I don’t want to turn this into a political issue either, but my understanding is that over the years, some content related to racism and sexism has been removed from the book. Whether these things were genuinely racist or sexist, or merely existed to explore these themes, I honestly have no idea. In any case, Masks of Nyarlathotep offers a much ‘safer’ environment for everyone than I expected from the 1920s. So, we decided to do our own research.

My game, set between the two world wars, includes both German and British characters, as well as two women. We think this could be a good opportunity to explore these themes of the era. For those curious, I can say the book doesn’t offer sufficient material on how the world operated regarding these issues back then.

Handouts, Images, etc.

The book includes many Handouts and images you can show your players. With a bit of online research, you can obtain even more. To find more images related to the era, I’m using this site and various artificial intelligence programs as well.

Peru

If you’re not a Keeper, perhaps you should skip the Peru part of this post. However, I don’t think this section contains significant spoilers either.

As you know, Masks consists of different Chapters. One of the first decisions you need to make as a Keeper is whether to run the Peru chapter. I decided to run it. The comments I read mentioned its importance in introducing the character Jackson Elias, and after reading the story, I agreed. Besides, since I was already inexperienced in this area, it meant an extra opportunity for me to gain experience before the main Masks storyline.

I also think Peru is an interesting country to see and run a game in. It has its own distinct atmosphere.

Preparation

Since I’ve only prepared for a very few sessions so far, I don’t have much to say on this topic yet. As I mentioned before, I’m a Keeper who enjoys prep. My plan is, when starting a Chapter, to learn that Chapter thoroughly and do some general preparation, and then do more minor prep for individual sessions. As I’ve heard from others and also realized myself, Masks of Nyarlathotep is a game that offers players a great deal of choice and leaves a wide open space. Already, my players have started taking actions not anticipated by the book. As a Keeper, you constantly need to ensure everything is on track. Things shouldn’t be too easy for the players, but they should also always be able to access clues that allow them to continue the story. This requires a delicate balance. After doing my major prep between Chapters, between sessions I do prep related to the unique things my group does and their consequences.

So, after two months filled with all of this – learning Call of Cthulhu, reading Masks of Nyarlathotep, running two one-shots, and preparing my 3rd Masks session – I’m now waiting for tomorrow to run the next session. For now, everything is fun, satisfying, and going according to plan. I hope it continues this way. I know I’m still very much at the beginning of the road; this is a long adventure. Time will tell what happens. For now, what I can tell you is, yes, you can run Masks of Nyarlathotep too!

I hope my experiences have been helpful for you. See you in the next posts.

Written by: Mustafa Güler

Translated into English by: Mustafa Güler