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I'm starting to get into CoC, I'd be Keeper(?) and I'm wondering how a campaign generally starts and progress's till the end.
If anyone could help that'd be great
(Also I'm not expecting a complete in detail campaign or anything, though if you wanted to put one up here that'd be awesome)

Depends on what you're planning on? Does it involve cultists and elder gods?

Probably a little of both, I'm wanting the game to progress for a long time, not just a one session type thing. If that's a possible thing to do that is. I'm hoping to have the mystery progress a number of years (in game). So probably start from cultists and end with elder gods.

first off, welcome to the mythos. I cant recommend the book scenario "Edge of Darkness" enough as a good intro for new players

Also, not everything has to be centric around cultists and gods destroying the world as the players save the day. Especially over the time line your thinking of in years. That said, throw them curveballs every now and then not plot centric, and maybe not even fully explained. Lovecraft would often follow the format of any (un)lucky survivors being left to wonder what had just happened and spend their lives without ever finding out just what was behind anything at all. Use this, if they think it may tie in with an ongoing plot let them have their red herring.

 doc1234 wrote:
Also, not everything has to be centric around cultists and gods destroying the world as the players save the day. Especially over the time line your thinking of in years. That said, throw them curveballs every now and then not plot centric, and maybe not even fully explained. Lovecraft would often follow the format of any (un)lucky survivors being left to wonder what had just happened and spend their lives without ever finding out just what was behind anything at all. Use this, if they think it may tie in with an ongoing plot let them have their red herring.

This. This +7. Actual encounters with the eldritch are extremely rare.

Thanks for the advice! Lol I really have no idea where to start with this game, that kinda helps though.

As i said, Edge of darkness is a great opening scenario, i also have one thats a little more research-lite (My group came from a mostly DH background) I could send along to you (and yes it shamelessly steals the beast from edge of darkness, was a lovely evil thing i couldn't resist).

Beyond that, as i said lead them on. My own group is 3 scenes in and still only just now getting their first nudges towards a larger plot.

The key to Call of Cthulhu is that combat is LETHAL, if your party gets into a fight with most of the mythos creatures they are likely to die (less so with modern day setting, but still dangerous)

Characters also tend to go insane, and therefore can't be played any more

So players have to be prepared to loose them. I'd suggest some sort of group/society/organisation for most PCs to belong to give a solid reason for new characters to get involved in ongoing campaigns eg a group of paranormal investigators, a univwerstiy research team, a P.I, agency etc

As said above a lot of weird stuff can be down to humans not mythos monsters (tho they may be working for monsters), and in many cases the mythos creatures might not even care about the PCs

I run it as a game of exploration and discovery, and find it really lends itself to roleplaying.

You'll find a wealth of campaigns etc for the various editions, many of which are very good, but you really need to know them well to run them.

Often success is meant to depend on the PCs spotting some mythos clue (where chances of success are very low), you want to figure out several alternatives to keep the game going if they fail, give them other ways to get the clues

I also love handouts for cthulhu campaigns, make up notes, newspaper articles, diary entries etc. It's lots of fun and adds to the atmosphere (have a look at some of the published stuff for ideas)

and if you do want to run a more combat heavy adventure the deep ones are a good enemy. Almost human motivation, killable, and a good excuse to read the Shadows over Insmouth again

Sure Doc, send it along. I'm not sure if you can send it me on here?
Also I'm not expecting there to be loads of combat, I'll have a few scenarios where fights are inevitable, but I want the game and the players to revolve more around the puzzle.
Mainly I'm hoping to drive their characters to the edge of insanity before throwing any major engagements at them, probably consisting of eldritch and creatures only at the very end.
I also was unsure if I should bring any handout type material, but there's a good chance I may now

Here you go, theres at most 1 real "Combat" encounter of the reincarnated agnes at the end (Though my group managed to avoid it by just dropping a bookstack on her). They did however manage to get into a combat with the unkillable beast in a cramp dark room for 2 turns. Even survived somehow.

I made this as one of my players had played some of the offshoot cthulhu systems before, but not the main one. So while he may have heard of "Edge of Darkness", I wanted to throw it into a different environment. This works better too with several possible hooks for later scenarios. Just like in the original, all they need to do is do a banishing ritual. Appologies if the notes are broken or lead no where in places, let me know if there's confusion. The two letters and map are at the bottom. (The ritual words are courtesy of Yog-Shathoth.com btw, I claim no credit there). Heh to be honest the hooks in this I personally aren't even using for the current campaign, "Mr.Omara" will crop up in a separate 1940's campaign im planning.

Hand out's are a fun addition, they st there agonizing over my wording in them at the end and managed to figure it all out, and they can be fun to do. Just make sure you give yourself a little extra prep time to get them looking good.

If you register with Chaosium you can download PDFs of a whole bunch of handouts from their official scenarios

http://catalog.chaosium.com/fdm_folder_files.php?fPath=3_7

they can give you ideas for your own stuff, or can could be worked directly into your own adventures

There is also a fair bit of free stuff in http://www.yog-sothoth.com/content/ (although the site has been rearranged since I last used it so I can't link directly, have a dig)

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
If you register with Chaosium you can download PDFs of a whole bunch of handouts from their official scenarios

http://catalog.chaosium.com/fdm_folder_files.php?fPath=3_7

they can give you ideas for your own stuff, or can could be worked directly into your own adventures

There is also a fair bit of free stuff in http://www.yog-sothoth.com/content/ (although the site has been rearranged since I last used it so I can't link directly, have a dig)

Try this

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/local_links.php?tabid=39

You need an account to download, and theres a fair few scenarios in there to use as well.

You are running something you created yourself?

I personally would start out running some one-nighters so you and everyone can get the feel of the game. Read a lot of campaigns, especially "Masks of Nyarlathotep" to get an idea of how a long running campaign is handeled.

Don't worry if they die along the way...hell, I would even say you are not living up to the potentials of the game if they don't lose at least one person.

You, or the players, should find a reason they are to be invested in the story or working with each other.

Red herrings, dead ends, and trails that lead in circles, are essential to keep the players guessing...But don't over use them or else you run the risk of the investegators becoming keen to them.

It is hard to really to say how a campaign progresses to the end when it really is all up to your players and their abilities. You could spend all week planning for a specific path and your players will want to go on a path you haven't even prepared for/thought of.