Thread: 1St Time, Best Scenerio

So I am not only completely new to the CoC RPG, but to tabletop role-playing all together. I am an avid board gamer, and run a small group (4-5 of us total). My brother, who plays with us told me he would like to get into RPG because he remembered having fun playing D&D one time like two decades ago when he was in middle school. None of us are really into dragons and trolls and whatnot, but he later sent me a link showing me they had much more of a variety then D&D to choose from.

Enter Coc. I am a huge fan of Lovecraft and have recently gotten the rest of my gaming group into the books. I was working on a small fan-fiction based in the world and my brother said we should just do it as an RPG. So, to surprise him, I bought the CoC 6th edition (arrives next week) and read the quick start rules posted on Chaosium. At some juncture I remember reading a scenario that was described as a great starter scenario and that it had been used ever since the CoC RPG first was started in the 80's but I cannot find it again anywhere. It was free downloadable scenario. It had you looking around a town and eventually going into a house and the bad guy was a vampire like being in the basement. That is almost all I remember from it and I cannot find it anywhere, I have scoured every site i can think of to no avail. I was hoping someone could direct me to it, or at the very least, to a good free DL scenario set in the 20's. I would be the Keeper and am hoping to get something simple and fun going soon and have read through most of the free ones available on Chaosium and was not overly impressed.

Any help would be appreciated. Also, any advice for a first time Keeper running a game with first time Investigators would also be appreciated.

Okay, so feel like a putz. After a few days searching, reread Quick Rules and there it was. At the end. So that mystery is solved. Still, anyone have any advice in general though?

The version of "The Haunting" in the Quick-Start rules is abbreviated, but your copy of 6th edition will have the full scenario in the back, as well as a couple others. Also, the mini-scenario "Murder in the Footlights" is a freebie downloadable at Chaosium's web site. See my additional material for it here:

Expanding "Murder in the Footlights"

Originally Posted by kdlugger

Okay, so feel like a putz. After a few days searching, reread Quick Rules and there it was. At the end. So that mystery is solved. Still, anyone have any advice in general though?

Play the Haunted House scenario.
It's fun, easy to hammer out in a session or two at the most, and it's kind of a rite of passage.
...and I'm not a huge fan of prewritten adventures.
I guess the best advice is to not worry about getting rules right. No matter how long you play rpgs, you will have rules questions at least every other session (in my experience, anyway). The main thing is to make sure everyone is having a good time and the story is moving along.
And don't be hard on yourself. GMing a game is not a board meeting, high art, a religious experience or a scientific endeavor. It's an outlet for fun with your friends. In most cases if you're relaxed and having a good time, everyone else around the table will be too.

Thank you all. They only have like 2 hours for the first trial run through so am doing a quick home-brew scenario, mixing in a few different scenario ideas. Will try the Haunted House and the Gas light next. I do have one question though, probably a stupid one, but I was wondering. The Weapon table for the knife reads that the damage is 1D4+db. What is the db. I felt like i knew this a week ago but am now suddenly having a brain fart.

damage bonus due to strength

Originally Posted by nclarke

damage bonus due to strength

Derp. Silly me. that's right. thank you.

Yeah, for really big, strong opponents (e.g., King Kong) the bonus is more harmful than the punch or weapon itself.