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Last sunday I DM'd for the first time. We played Trail of Cthulu. I went through all the rules but I still don't have a terribly good grasp of them. I was hoping that at least one of my players would at least skim through the rules and help me a bit, but they did not. Thankfuly the scenario I came up with wasn't terribly complicated so I think we got all the rules right. We spent around 2 hours on character creation. I completely forgot their names (I will add them here later) but the group consisted of:
A police officer that is as American as it gets, a true patriot.
A reporter from the Daily bugle that holds freedom of the press above all else and is very concerned about the current (1930.) political state of affairs in Europe.
An american born german psychologyst that has heard nice things about a chap called Hitler, and dislikes the current president Hoover.
A french born catholic priest that is in america to investigate this new heresy called "Americanism".
An irishman with conections with the IRA.

Before the session started I knew that I wanted the party to be together in a car, get lost in a blizzard and get stuck in a remote vilage so that the plot could actually begin. I did not, however, know who the party members would be, so I had to figure out an excuse for all of these completely unrelated people to get in the same car. I ended up telling them that all of them are at a gas station near a bus stop. The police officer has a car, but his gas tank is empty and so is his wallet. The german psychologyst crashed into a bus with his car, so he and the rest of the players are stranded. All of them are trying to reach the same destination. So, everyone except the irishman starts to negotiate with the cop to hitch a ride. This negotiation is little more than all the players yelling incoherent nonsense at each other, until the priest finaly manages to pay for the cops gas over the other 2 guys yelling. The irishman, however, has the briliant idea to go steal a gas canister from the gas station. He manages to break into the place from the back entrance undetected. He does not, however, find any gas. Dissapointed, he decides to steal a bag of chips instead. He rolls badly and the bag of chips produces a lot of noise (who would have thought) so the clerk spots him and calls the cop over. He is arrested and put into the trunk so that he wouldn't cause any trouble for the other passengers. The german remarks that this is typical of the irish - of coure the irishman would try to steal the potatos.
The gang finally sets off.
After some driving they realise that they are completely lost, they ended up on some dirt road on a small hill. All of this is happening during the winter, and there is a blizzard going on - and getting worse. If they don't find shelter soon they will freeze to death. Luckily they can see a silouete of a house just up ahead. The party leaves the car (except the irishman) and knocks on the door of the house, that looks more like a cabin to them. An old man opens the door and asks them how they got here. They explain that they were driving in their car and got lost, pointing to the car. The old man doesn't seem to understand what a car is, but lets them in anyway. The irishman is let inside too. The old man calls down his wife Mary to come make some dinner for their guests, and starts lighting a fire (the players noticed that the room is very cold and were wondering how anyone lives here). After the fire is up and light enters the room, the party notices that the old man is extremely pale, and the german (has medicine and biology) concludes that he looks like there isn't any blood in his skin. He is also wearing an outfit that doesn't fit the time period, it's much too old. He sits them down at the table, and the officer asks if there is a phone he could use, to which the old man asks what a phone is. The german points to the irishman and says to the old man that the irish always get themselves into trouble, just like those damned negroes. The old man says that with the proper guidance the negroes aren't so bad, and that he used to own a slave back in the day. The reporter wants to know more about the stances of old people on politics and asks for a picture. The old man does not understand what a camera is, the reporter explains, but the old man says that it sounds like some sort of devilry to him and knocks it out of his hands and breaks it. This costs the reporter some stability since he is big on freedom of the press. He deserved to be punished here, he and the irishman like to play idiots, but they must learn that in a mystery horror game this will quickly get them killed or locked up in a mental asylum. The old woman serves the table, but the players quickly discover that there isn't any food on the plates. Still, the hosts look quite offended and urge the players to enjoy the delicious meal. Only the irishman gets the hin, and starts to pretend that he's eating. The rest argue, until the hosts get really mad, go upstairs and return with muskets! Finally getting the message everybody starts "eating". A few conversations are had, and the party learns that the old man is 85, the woman is 79, and they both believe the year is 1859. Everyone is weirded out by the situation and I ask them all for a stability checks. Everyone looses a bit of stability except the irishman. One of the players jokes that it's because he was eating a traditional irish meal and was therefore used to it. Laughs are had all around. The hosts let the players sleep over, but tell them that they have to leave the next mourning, or else. During the night the players do some snooping and find out that there is no food in the house, and that there are no feces in the outhouse.

A few more thing happened after that, but I would like to stop here.
I have prepared this entire adventure so that it would force them to use their heads, and more importantly to make them not play like murderhobos. All they had to do here is be polite. I, of course knew that this is an impossible task for them and that they would get themselves kicked out of the house.

 Power Elephant wrote:
I have prepared this entire adventure so that it would force them to use their heads, and more importantly to make them not play like murderhobos. All they had to do here is be polite. I, of course knew that this is an impossible task for them and that they would get themselves kicked out of the house.

Heh, I laughed.

The murderhobo gene is strong in some people. It's possibly the biggest source of dissent in my group, getting the brainy and brawny players on the same page.

That was a fun read.

 Strombones wrote:
That was a fun read.

Since at least one person seems to like the story I'll continiue. We didn't have another seshion, I just didn't tell the full story in the last post.

So the party gets kicked out of the house the first thing in the mourning, and starts exploring their environment now that they can actually see things in the daylight. The storm has ended and the weather is quite nice, but it is still impossible for the party to leave due to all the snow. The priest notices a man trudging through the snow holding some farming equipment in one hand. Just like the couple, he is wearing an outfit that doesn't fit the period, is pale, and is also missing the lower portion of an arm. The arm is not healed, and looks like someone cleanly cut it recently, only it isn't bleeding at all. The two have an exchange in which the priest is completely bewildered about what he's seeing and tries to convince the man to seek help, and the man cannot seem to comprehend why this is a big deal, and explains that he's lost and found plenty of other limbs in the past such as his legs or head. Both akwardly walk away from each other looking the other like they're crazy.
The party now realises that they're famished and need to eat something, as it looks like they're going to be staying here for a while. Right on que they smell the delicious smell of roasting meat. They follow the smell to a cabin, and a tall, strong, bearded man that is just as pale as everyone else the party met in the village welcomes the party and invites them in for breakfast. He says that he know that the couple is a bit crazy and wishes to give them a proper welcome to their humble village (I think I forgot to mention this, but the party inquired about the name of the village with the old couple, and they said it's called Sleepy Hill). At this point everyone in the party is about 95% sure that they're going to be served human meat, and then served again to someone else. The doctor does, however, confirm that the meat doesn't look human to him (allthough this ceritanly isn't a guarantee) and everyone digs in since they're so hungry. While eating, the man introduces himself as John, says that he is a hunter, and that he will be gone until evening to check on some traps, and that the party is welcome to stay in his cabin and make themselves comfortable. He also mentions that he will have to "ask a small favour" from them when he returns. This only amplifies the partys' fear of eating people and in turn, being eaten by people. So, after their host is gone they set out to confirm what it is that they've eaten. All of them are relieved to find the remains of a butchered deer.
We concluded the session slightly after that.
Now I'm just waiting for a chance at another session, as this is considered to be a side campaign.
I'm very glad that I've made my players afraid of something that's not there. That's one type of horror checked. I hope they don't find this post so they don't get spoilers, but the next type of horror I'm going to subject them to is fear of each other...

That's great !! Very thematic !! Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading more after you play again.

Finally managed to DM another sesion. Two of the players weren't there: Regynald Garpigou (the priest), and Jack Walters (police detective).
Another player has joined in. After going through several scenarios to explain how he got there, he liked the idea that he is an amnesiac with a mysterious past that got there through unknown and seemingly otherwordly means, so we settled on that.
Also I wanted to quickly say a few things about a couple of mechanics so you know what I'm talking about. The stability and sanity mechanics. Basicaly scary things make you lose stability, losing too much makes you get mental illnesess and lose sanity. When you lose all your sanity you become a madman and can no longer play the game as that character.
Now that we've got that out of the way we can go onto the actual events that transpired.

So the party (now consisting of Peter Katich, Friedrich von Nexkull the Alienist and Mickey McMourgh the IRA member) decides to go outside exploring, and they notice a few of the villagers singing together with a man in dirty, but modern clothing, holding a bottle of booze. They ask me what they are singing, to which I turn to the new player in the group and ask him: "Yes, what are you singing?".
He realises that he is the man in question and decides that he is singing the american hymn. The party approaches him and starts talking to him about a wide range of topics not really related to anything, most notably Hitler, with some praising him and some saying he's trouble. The villagers then become disinterested and leave because they have no idea what anybody is talking about. I'm sure they didn't plan for this to happen, but it worked out nicely for them. Friedrich shakes hands with him, and notices that something is not right with the palm of his hand. There is a shape of a triangle cut in the palm of his hand. The man is surprised by this, and it pulls him back into reality. He realises that he doesn't remember who he is or how he got here. He does remember his name though. He is J.D.R. Kolchack, the communist hobo. Friedrich performs psychoanalasys on him, to help him remember. Now, it is important to note that during this time of history, psychology was only developing and Freuds theories were prevelant. Now, although they weren't really succsessful in reality, it would be pretty stupid to have one of the most important classes in the setting be usseless. So, as long as the player says "I'm using psychoanalasys" and then says some freudian nonsense, it will always work. I don't recal the exact words Friedrich said to Kolchack, but it was something to this effect: "Ok Kolchack. I want you to imagine your desire of f****** your mother. Now I want you to squeze that desire out of you. Push it as hard as hard as you can through your a**hole! Since he did the steps described previously, this worked. He remembered the taste of salt in the air, and a number finite, but so huge he couldn't reduce it to zero, no matter what he subtracted from it. He also felt like something had exited him. And indeed it had. The rest of the party noticed a foul stench in the air. As a hobo, Kolchack had been in this situation many times prior, and stealthily removed the culprit from his pants and dug it with snow.
The rest of the village looked like a normal village, but everything was at least a bit off. Some children were playing with a ball, only the ball was a head of a little girl yelling that she'll tell her mother. The men went through the motions of farmwork, they weren't in the field and it was the dead of winter. Mickey decided that he wanted to steal something again, and he managed to steal a hammer form a shed, and nearly got caught. Then the party decided to do some snooping of the hunter's property. Firs Mickey picked the lock to the cellar, and found nothing except some vension. Then the party decided to check the outhouse. This one did emit a foul stench, but it wasn't the one of feces, but one of rotten meat. The party went into a furious debate to decide who is going to go inside to check what's there lasting 20 real lif minutes. They never did manage to agree on anything. They were interupted by a group of unnerved villagers who had just witnessed 4 adult men argue about who is going to go dig through the feces of their neighbor for 20 minutes, all the while throwing out suggestions like "why don't the 2 of you go in together?", and told them that there will be trouble unless they go back into the hunters house. They obliged. They searched the inside of the house, not finding anything of interest other than a diary. The diary described a harsh winter of an unknown year, and how the village would soon be completely out of food. It states that soon they would have no choice but to turn to that "red wh**e witch" for help.

Like before, the session wasn't ended here, but I want to space the content out for a bit because I don't get to DM often and don't know where the next session will be. I will detail the events of the rest of the session in 2 or 3 more posts if anyone is interested.

 Power Elephant wrote:
Jack Walters (police detective).

I see someone has played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth!

I think it's fair to say the encounter with the red witch probably went about as bad as can be. I await tasty details.

Continuation.

The players lit up a fire in the fireplace, and waited since there wasn't anything else they could do. In the evening the hunter returned. Knowing that the hunter would notice that the lock to the cellar has been picked, Mickey remarked to the hunter that he noticed the lock to his cellar was shabby. The hunter replied that he didn't notice anything wrong with it. Then he told everyone that all his traps came up empty, and that he only had enough meat for a single portion (since the players checked the cellar they know this isn't true. There isn't enough food in there for the entire winter, but there is enough for a meal for all of them). He went on to explain a tradition in which in times of famine, families would gather around the fireplace before supper and tell scary stories to each other. The person with the best story would go to bed with a full belly. Now I asked the players to write down something that their characters are afraid of. If a story was based around that fear, hearing it would cause that person to lose extra stability The intent here was to offer a dillema to the players: do I tell a really terrifying story and cause my fellow investigators to lose stability, and eat, or do I tell a bad story, saving my party much needed stability, but going to bed hungry? Unfortunately, this went completely over their heads and everyone tried to tell the best story they could think of. Luckily for them, it turned out that they managed to game the system as everyone told a terrible story that wouldn't scare a 4 year old, so they lost next to no stability, except for Friedrich who wrote down that he was afraid of poverty, and every single one of their stories centered around it. The hunter also told a story about an inteligent deer with sharp horns that hunted him. In the end the hunter said that he just wanted to motivate them to tell good stories and served dinner to everyone. Except Mickey. The hunter told him that he knows he picked the lock and that he can't just pretend it didn't happen, the party would have to leave in the mourning. I let Mickey restore a point of stability, as being hungry and Irish provided him with an anchor to reality. They all went to sleep.
Mourning came. After establishing that they still cannot leave, they ventured further into the village. Soon they noticed a barber shop, and 3 villagers carrying their detatched limbs entering it. They deduced that whoever runs the shop must be responsible for stiching these people together when they fall apart. They decide to go inside. Upon entering they find two of the men patiently waiting, and one on a table currently being stiched. There is a medical degree necased on the wall. This person is apparently a doctor that is able to perform his own surgeries. Jack starts: "excuse me..", and the doctor/barber looks at him for a moment and then returns to his work. A few seconds pass, and then the doctor completely freezes. He then turns back towards Jack and the rest of the party, tilting his head and with an amazed look in his face says: "Y-you.. you're all allive?". Friedrich replies: "Of course we are. Aren't you?". The doctor slowly starts laughing louder and louder, then suddenly stops and his expression turns to anger. He turns to the villagers and starts yelling at them to get out. They are befuddled at first, but when the doctor takes one of the limbs they brought him and throws it out the window into the snow, and repeats himself even more loudly, they get the message and hastily leave. He then signals the players to folow him, and descends down into his basement. The players oblige, too curious and close to answers to nope out of there. Once in the basement, the doctor suddenly slams the door and locks the players and himself inside. He franticaly starts asking the players to help him „make that thing there dead“, pointing to a creature strapped to a table that is esentialy an amalgamation of limbs. All the players roll for a stability check and all of them roll highly and are unaffected. None of them have the reassure skill and are unable to calm the doctor down. Kolchack instead manages to barter with him, saying that they will help him with whatever he needs if he just calms down and explains what is going on here. Finaly the party get some answers. He explains how things got to be the way they are. One particular winter, supplies were dropping fast, and the hunter was unable to catch any game. Snow had made it impossible to leave to get some food elsewhere. It was clear that they were going to starve to death. There was, however, a small possibility of survival. In the village there was a prostitute, whose mother was an Indian witch. In their desperation they went to her, hoping her mother had passed some knowlege that could save them to her. The only person who objected was the village priest, but he was quickly pitchforked to death. The mob burst through her door, and demanded that she „wards off death from our door“. She refused, to which the mob pitchforked her as well. Realising she was about to die, she did as they asked to save herself and cast the spell. Death has since that moment left everyone from the village, turning them into undead. The combination of realising that God had left them as per their demand, and knowlege that they can't even die and go to hell had drove them all mad. To cope, they all „live“ in denial of the past, beliving that they are just a normal village. Only the doctor has remained somewhat sane, determined to give the release of death to the villagers through medical experimentation… Only the doctor, and the witch.

Next up is the final confrontation and conclusion to this little adventure.