Masks of Nyarlathotep | Pulp Cthulhu or CoC 7e
Experience the classic Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World — can you stop it?
$20.00
/ Session
Details
5 players following this game
Bi-weekly / Monday - 11:30 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2.5–3 hours
2 / 5 Seats Filled
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One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Meet your party members
2/5
About the adventure
Iä Nyarlathotep! Iä Crawling Chaos! Iä Pharaoh of the Universe! Widely considered the quintessential Call of Cthulhu campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep is a player-driven globe-trotting campaign. Initiated by the death of a friend, investigators or heroes will find clues, turn up questions, and dig up answers in locals such as Peru, Kenya, New York, and Egypt, all the while confronting the cults of the Black Pharaoh in a rush to solve the mystery before the cultists' doomsday clock runs out. Masks of Nyarlathotep is infamous for being deadly, discarding investigators across the globe. Before we begin, we'll discuss how deadly we want the game to be, whether we want to run it using classic Call of Cthulhu 7e rules to keep it deadly, Pulp Cthulhu to give heroes more than a fighting chance, or some mix in-between. 🔎 This is a beginner-friendly game designed to be engaging for experienced players. 🔎 Balance of roleplay, exploration, social encounters, and combat. 🔎 This is a welcoming, open table and there is no space for racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia.
Game style
Combat Lite
Roleplay Lite
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(17)
3 years on StartPlaying
100 games hosted
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Beginner Friendly, Creativity
Average response time: 1 hour
Response rate: 50%
About me
Welcome! I'm Gunnhrafn (he/him), and I'm a long-time GM (26 years of experience) who loves to run a wide variety of games for a wide variety of people, including introducing new players to role-playing games and introducing players to new games. I first started GMing in 1986 and I first began playing TTRPGs back in 1982. As a GM, I enjoy shared story-telling and collaborative world building. I use Discord for communication, and a mix of theater of the mind, Foundry VTT, Roll20, Quest Portal, and Google Sheets depending upon the game. For custom bookings for groups please contact me with an inquiry. I'm available to run one-shots, short-run games, and campaigns for groups and individuals (for one-to-one gaming). I'm also available to teach game systems or help with character creation. Rates will vary depending upon the request. I'm also available to run guided solo and other one-player/one-GM style games. Rates generally run $15-$18.50 for a 60-75 minute game and $25 for a 2 hour session. Depending upon the time, I can run weekly and bi-weekly games. For a complete list of guided solo/one-to-o e games I can run, please see my list of guided games at https://tinyurl.com/buft7utu. Most of these games can also be run play-by-post.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We'll discuss character creation during Session Zero. We'll either use standard Call of Cthulhu 7e or Pulp Cthulhu character creation depending upon our group's interest. Premade characters are available on request.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
To play, you will need: 🔎 A reliable internet connection and ability to access our Discord and Quest Portal sites as well as a Google Drive and if we choose to use it, the web-based LegendKeeper. 🔎 A reliable microphone for voice chat via Discord. Web cameras are optional. 🔎 A free Discord and Quest Portal account. To prepare for our Session Zero, you should: 🔎 Join our Discord and Quest Portal servers. 🔎 Fill out our modified Monte Cook RPG Consent Checklist so we may establish our game's expectations for lines, veils, ask first topics, and issues and themes of interest.
What Gunnhrafn brings to the table
🔎 A Discord site for voice and text chat to be used before, during, and after our game session, and if we wish, a LegendKeeper site for us to record campaign details. 🔎 Online access to the Call of Cthulhu Investigator's Guide and Pulp Cthulhu game book. 🔎 A guide to character creation and quick-reference sheets of the game's mechanics. 🔎 A LegendKeeper site if players would like to use its wiki-based interface to create linked notes tracking locations, NPCs, objects, texts, clues, concepts, and maps. 🔎 My 26-years experience as a GM, and my ability to run games that are both beginner-friendly and enjoyable for long-time players.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Gunnhrafn creates a safe table
Maintaining a comfortable and inclusive experience for everyone in our game is a top priority, and we have a number of tools to help us achieve that goal. First, I strongly encourage player feedback, both in what you like about current play, what you would like to see happen in future play, and what hasn't been working for you during play. I see my job as trying to create the best experience that I'm able to for each player, and that requires good feedback from you. We'll discuss the following table tools during Session Zero and as needed, and we are always able to renegotiate our use of these tools. |Inclusive Table| This is a welcoming, open table and there is no space for racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia. |Open Table and Breaks| Players may come and go as suit their needs in the moment, whether that's to walk away from an intense or difficult moment or to let the dog out or answer the door to get dinner. During each session, we will have at least one 10 minute break, roughly halfway through our game. |Monte Cook RPG Consent Checklist (lines and veils), X-card, and Script Changes| Before our Session Zero or as soon as possible, players should fill out our version of the Monte Cook RPG Consent Checklist to indicate content we should remove (lines), content that should be off-stage (veil), and content they would like to see included. During play we have both the X-card (a request to end a scene or shift the content immediately — An in-game call for a Line), as well as the following Script Change tools (Rewind, Pause, Fast-forward). | Roses and Thorns, Stars and Wishes, and Debriefing| In our Discord, we'll have channels to discuss past sessions using to give each other feedback about game play. 🔎 Roses and Thorns: Identify what you particularly liked about a session (Roses) and what you wish was handled differently by your or the group (Thorns). 🔎 Stars and Wishes: Identifying particularly strong player contributions (Stars) and indicating what you'd like to see happen in the future (Wishes). 🔎 Debriefs: A place to discuss issues that are hindering your fun.
Content warnings
Safety tools used