The Withering That Follows | Learn To Play Call of Cthulhu

Creating your character

What I need from a character is the high concept and the trouble, regardless of ruleset or system. These will help me understand the fantasy or archetype you intend to roleplay. The high concept is a sentence or phrase that encapsulates the character concept while the trouble is the fatal flaw or thing plaguing their lives. For example, Sherlock Holmes might have a high concept of "the world's greatest detective" and a trouble of "humans are dull creatures". You can use this link to learn more about high concepts and troubles: https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/your-character-idea#high-concept Bring a couple of character ideas to session 0! The setting is set in a small town by the shore with ambiguous geography and time period (a mix of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), so think of character archetypes like a detective, a federal officer, a journalist, or one of the high school kids that found the TV box. While the TV Box and the reappearances of missing people is the main mystery of this scenario, each character will also have their own smaller town conspiracies they are a part of or looking to solve. We will finalize it during character creation, but come with a couple of ideas for what mystery your character is involved in. You can also message me to brainstorm any ideas you have regarding this personal mystery. As this is a beginner friendly game, we will finalize character creation together as a group during session 0. Here, we will also determine the relationships between characters and finalize details on the world itself.

Preparing for the session

All you need is a microphone, Internet connection, a Discord account, a Roll20 account, and an eagerness to play. Webcam is optional. Discord is used for communication while Roll20 is used for maps and a few handouts. We will use Roll20 to create the character sheets, which will be shared for everyone. Dice can be rolled via Roll20, some other virtual interface, or in-person. I will sometimes ask you to roll "in front of the board" for a dramatic moment, which will use the Roll20 die to roll.

What Dewa brings to the table

Background music, TTRPG experience, and a mountain of a mystery. I will also roleplay my NPCs and narrate the world for you, so expect character voices. As an advocate for player agency, I do my best to narrate the world's reaction to your choices and actions rather than how your character perform your intended outcome. As such, I highly recommend creativity in describing your character's actions, regardless of whether they succeed or fail. I'll love any and all attempts my players make to narrate their characters! This is primarily meant to be a theater of mind play, but there will be handouts and visual aids given to the players on Roll20.

How Dewa creates a safe table

I will go over any Lines or Veils during session 0 and determine a safe word to stop any action happening in the session. These will be posted in the Discord server and pinned. I will provide a warning for any scene that has a potential trigger. We will also take breaks when necessary, and I will stay for a bit longer for any debriefs or aftercare. This is intended to be dark and disturbing, particularly in regards to body horror and memory alteration, but we will put certain limitations depending on player needs. My Line is in-real-life bigotry, which will never be tolerated. There will be no warning for behaviors that exhibit real-life bigotry (racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.) or sexual harassment.