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Number of Investigators for Mask of Nyarlathotep


Paul_Va

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I'm getting ready to run Masks of Nyarlathotep for my gaming group, and I noticed in the campaign it recommends you play with no fewer than 6 investigators. I'm assuming this is due to the lethality of the scenario. However, I only have 4 players, so I'm wondering if anyone else has ever run it with 4, and if so, did you need to make any adjustments. Of course, I could always have two players run two characters, but it would be a little awkward for only two players to get to, or have to, run two characters and not the others, etc.

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I confess that I have not run the adventure before. But you should be able to run it with your 4 players and make adjustments on the fly. At least you know they designed it with 6 players in mind. So that makes it easy to adapt. If an encounter states 8 adversaries, then drop them to 6, monsters with multiple attacks can just miss a couple of times (the players will never know), etc. Personally, I don't think you'll have a problem.

Rod

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I ran it with 4 players back around 2004/2005. It went fairly well. Though, the campaign ended in Cairo when 2 of the investigators were eaten by ghouls, 1 went permanently insane, and the last spent a good amount of time in a sanitarium before returning to a different campaign 4 years later. The Bent Pyramid was a really tough ride for them, but I still consider the campaign a success. :)

I also ran it with 5 players in 2012. No real problems, though the campaign ended early due to some scheduling conflicts. No dead investigators throughout the New York and London chapters. One weak-willed PC did suffer some serious hits to his Sanity over that time.

Edited by K Peterson
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  • 5 months later...

Although the guy running it is on GM'ing hiatus in my group so that other people can run things, we have been doing okay with 5 investigators so far and the Keeper has not mentioned any major need to adapt or change anything so far. My guy is not to far from completely losing it mentally, but on the other hand he only started with 50 SAN and we have just concluded the New York opening scenario. Looking forward to getting back to it actually as it is certainly living up to it's billing as one of the greatest published campaigns ever so far.

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Many years ago I ran the New York chapter with I think three or four players. I think we made it to London as well; I remember a fight by the Limehouse docks. In general I don't think Call of Cthulhu sessions are improved by having lots of players. Masks of Nyarlathotep can be pretty lethal (though you can reduce its lethality a little by making the cultists more stupid). However many players you have I think the trick is to have a steady supply of new investigators: cousins, or close friends of the original investigators who are now dead or insane. That's the part you can always gloss over in CoC games: your dear cousin/friend/acquaintance of many years has been sending you increasingly disturbing notes/parcels telegrams about his obscure and disturbing investigations. Suddenly they have ceased, you have grown worried and sought him out, only to find him dead or insane, surrounded by a disreputable and haggard bunch of souls. Something about the look in their eyes tells you that the ghastly hints you have received may in fact be truth...

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