Pages: 92 total (75 pages of scenario text, 4 pages of handouts).
Runtime: 9 sessions taking 3 hours each session. Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 took two sessions each; chapter 4 took one session.
Campaign is 5 chapters, each chapter is a scenario.
This is the first campaign for Vaesen. It was originally a podcast of actual play and converted into a campaign. I listened to 3 episodes of the podcast and I felt it was ok (this was a 3 part prologue and became the first chapter of a 5 chapter campaign), there was too much anachronistic side chatter that I didn't like, so I stopped listening to it. I did note that the podcast was slightly different from the published campaign in minor details.
Since the campaign was based on the core book, there were no new Vaesen in the campaign. A number of published scenarios included new Vaesen. This campaign does highlight and bring in various bits of Swedish culture that is missing from the core book such as Fika and Valborg. Mining is a big industry too.
Overall, the various chapters has a tenuous throughline. Chapters 1, 3, and 4 can easily be played as standalone scenarios, chapters 2 and 5 less so.
I think the overall impression of the campaign is that it's ok, but not the big blockbuster campaign people were expecting. There's also some implications about a key element of the campaign that may have major repercussions to Vaesen lore, so inserting this campaign into your world may change some things irrevocably and also some of the chapters may have a chance of TPK. I'll discuss these things in the spoiler section.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Green Stones
One of my main concerns is that this campaign introduces a green stone that is the solidified blood of giants. One of the properties of this stone is that it absorbs Vaesen magic and attracts Vaesen to it. Once it absorbs the magic, the magic can be accessed. This is a major magical item and it's not guaranteed that these stones will be destroyed by the end of the campaign.
I decided to call this green stone Magnussonite as there's no official name for it.
In chapter 2, we learn that miners working for Svea Mining Corp were deemed insane and were taken to Upsala Asylum for treatment, but in reality, they were seeing Vaesen. It's not clear what gave the miners the Sight, if it's exposure to Magnussonite dust or that Magnussonite attracts Vaesen like moths to a flame and that increases the chance of a miner to suddenly notice Vaesen. One of the PCs visited the Asylum and saw the insane miners acting out, swatting at Vaesen, running away from them, attacking them. The PC instantly understood that the miners looked insane, but were just reacting to the Vaesen normal people didn't see. In my game, the PCs convinced Sigrid that the miners weren't insane. Sigrid has the Sight. And it was easy to show her that the miners weren't insane, but had the Sight.
In chapter 3, the PCs killed the Lady of Cold, a frost giantess. Her body shatters like stone and her heart becomes a giant green stone. I made it the size of a large steamer trunk and weigh several hundred pounds. The PCs sold it to Svea as they needed to pay off back taxes for Castle Gyllencreutz. In my game, Linnea Elfeklint has been in the Asylum for at least a decade and no one has paid the property taxes on the rundown castle. Once the PCs started to cleanup the property and upgrade it, the authorities noticed this and sent tax collectors. A number of Players used Resources as a dump score (yeah, a number of Players like to min/max), so nobody could afford the back taxes. Property tax is called fastighetsbevillning. Castle Gyllencreutz is a fairly large estate. Selling the heart also got them an invite to the Abisko Mine in chapter 5.
In chapter 5, I had to do more heavy lifting to make sense of the elements presented. The lab with the shelves of dead Vaesen had shock value, but didn't make sense. How do you kill so many Vaesen? How do you collect so many? So, I decided inside the mine was a Vaesen trap. Spiked iron cages (very medieval) held Magnussonite. Vaesen get attracted to it and when they touch it, it drains their power and powers up the stones. The weakened Vaesen are then killed. What prevents the Vaesen from running away with the stones? The stones are held in place with iron prongs much like what holds diamonds onto a ring. Who kills the Vaesen? The miners with the Sight who were at the Upsala Asylum were given a new job at the mine. To keep to the scenario where Sigrid enters the mine to get the Vaesen bomb, I decided there's a Magnussonite repository / vault in a played-out part of the mine. The Vaesen trap is there too. Inside the vault is the giant heart that was purchased from the PCs, it is still unpowered. It sits on a wheeled cart. When they tried to wheel out the heart, I had Lisa's Revenant attack, in an effort to keep the stones where they belong. The PCs used the heart to defeat the Revenant, knocking her onto the stone several times, and finally defeating it, but at the same time charging up the giant heart, making it pulse with Vaesen power. Sigrid had a detonator filled with Magussonite and told the other PCs to flee before she sets the heart off. Two PCs didn't trust her and watched as she got possessed by the Revenant and started to open up the gate for the ginormous giant (see campaign book cover). After a fight, the PCs forced the detonator onto the heart and set off the Vaesen-nuke.
I didn't like that Sigrid had murdered Karl, so I left that out of the scenario. I decided that Karl would hire investigators to look into the PCs and their involvement with Sigrid's disappearance.
There's also supposed to be some early warning system as Svea didn't want another repeat of the Abisko Mine Disaster. I decided it's some sort of non-modern air horn, Gjallarhorn. The miners have been drilled to leave the area orderly and quickly when it's sounded. Sigrid set it off as soon as they got near ground level with the heart. This emptied out the mining area and reduced the number of casualties due to the Vaesen-nuke.
I also explained Sigrid's aging as the magic that kept her youthful was being continuously drained by the Magnussonite.
In my game, only one piece of Magnussonite survived. It was one of the two that Franzibald Hansen had. The PCs are currently using it to negate the Gloson curse placed on one of the PCs. That PC was turned into a Gloson piglet. The Magnussonite causes the curse to cycle, draining the curse until it's powered up, then as the stone leaks power and becomes ready to drain the curse again, the curse reasserts and changes the PC into a Gloson piglet again.
Potential TPKs
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 have a chance of killing PCs and a possible TPK. In chapter 3, the frost giantess broke 2 of the 4 PCs. One PC was able to distract the giant and dodge multiple attacks as the 4th PC actually took down the giant. It was pretty close to a TPK. If the 3rd PC failed a single dodge, it would have been a TPK. In chapter 4, the Lindworm can enslave the whole party and cause a TPK. One PC was broken by the Lindworm and the other PCs basically surrendered and they traded Mikaela for Eira as per the scenario's setup. In chapter 5, the Vaesen-nuke has the potential of a TPK. Two PCs were annihilated by the nuke at the end of the scenario and one PC was broken by the blast. That said, my Players loved chapters 3 and 4.
The mines worked three 8 hour shifts, so its operations ran 24 hours.
When I ran the scenario, PCs wanted to tour the mine. I said, it's too dangerous, but bribed miners were willing to let them have a very limited tour of the first level. I did find it interesting that in chapter 1, the Myling was buried deep in the mine which doesn't make any sense. In the podcast, the baby's body was buried under the church floorboards, but when they wrote up the campaign, they placed the body deep in the mine.
Of particular note is the very end of the video where pigeons are confused by different colored concentric circles. They can't enter doorways and windows with that displayed. I found that was an interesting fact (if true) and could help explain why Revenants can't pass a Christian symbol painted in tar (p.151 core book under Ritual). This could be a cool rationale for Vampires and their aversion to holy symbols too.
In my game, the PCs put Lisa in one of the rooms in the Abisko Research Center and painted Christian symbols over the doorways and windows. While the PCs were at the banquet, she (under the influence of the Revenant) used a pillow case to smudge the symbols and this allowed her to escape and get to the mine.
Fika
In chapter 1, Fika is introduced. It's a wonderful thing to introduce as part of Swedish culture.
Falu Red
Falu Red is mentioned in chapter 1.
Falun Mine
The Swedish Royal Coat of Arms
The PCs see it prominently displayed at Upsala University for the royal visit in chapter 2.
Period Ice Breaker (chapter 3)
Bergen, Norway
Sørland
Værøy
Viking Long House
Royal Mounds of Gamla (chapter 4)
The 3 big mounds from left to right are Freya, Thor, Oden.
I'm the Forever GM. I've been GMing games since starting with D&D (white box edition, heavily homebrewed) since the mid-1970s. We did dungeon crawls and were murderhobos. During that time, we tried d6 Star Wars, Paranoia, James Bond, Space 1889, Shadowrun, Stalking the Night Fantastic, etc. It was only after college that I got into more of the storytelling aspects of roleplaying (by playing Vampire and GURPS). I only started to intensively run CoC in 2011. My gaming style has evolved from combat based (random combat encounters) to more story based (coming up with clue trails, clue details, NPC motivations, plot twists, etc. on the fly).
Anyway, I'm seeing a number of people who've never GMed asking how to prep for a game.
Here are my steps (do steps 1 to 6 days earlier and those steps takes about 4+ hours):
Read it quickly (you can skim or speed read it) just to understand what's going on, to understand the story. Most CoC scenarios has a What's Going On section (Keeper Info, Overview, Background) at the beginning of the scenario spelling out exactly what has happened. Don't worry about stats, mechanics, or spells, just read it for the plot. The reason you need to know the plot is because this lets you improvise clues and clue trails that makes sense during play. If you don't know the plot, then you might create conflicting clues that'll confuse your Players.
Cut-n-paste handouts (either copier for in-person, or screen shots if running online). Read them also because they sometimes contain info not in the scenario text. I've been blindsided a few times when a Player asked about something that was in a handout I didn't know about. In most published scenarios, copies of the handouts are also at the end of the scenario or in the appendix in the back of the book.
Google pictures for additional handouts. Note what is missing in above step. You'll generally notice you're missing a NPC portrait, a location map, picture of a landmark, or period objects that you're not familiar with.
Have pre-gens (pre-generated PCs) ready. I don't recommend having Players make PCs in their first game. Just provide more pre-gens than Players, so at least the last Player isn't left with no choices. Also maybe gift or reserve 100 skill pts that they can add to any skills they want (other than Cthulhu Mythos). An extra PC can also be used as a replacement PC if a PC dies early, unexpectedly; it's no fun to be at a convention and your PC dies 1 hour into the game and the GM tells you you can't play anymore. When I run high lethality games, especially at a convention, some systems (Godlike, Mörk Borg, Alien) are more lethal than others, I make sure there are plenty of backup PCs. If they are creating their own PCs, have them use www.dholeshouse.org. Some games, I use a spreadsheet when I create characters to make sure all skills needed for the scenario are covered and the PCs are balanced.
Highlight a copy the scenario (hardcopy or digital, I hate writing in books). Read the scenario again carefully and use a highlighter on important bits. You can use different colors for GM info, stuff to read aloud, save throws, names, important aspects, etc. Create more handouts that you've missed on the first pass. This is also when you'll realize that parts of the scenario either doesn't make sense or is missing details and you'll have to modify the scenario or add additional details that fleshes it out.
Create a single page bulleted outline of important stuff that must happen. Also add your own notes.
Right before the game, I reread again to refresh my memory and add any additional highlights or handouts I missed. At a convention, I generally don't look at the scenario again (unless I have to), but use the single page bullet pointed outline.
Have pencils, dice, character portraits, character sheets, maps, handouts ready for running. I don't like using a GM screen because it's a barrier between me and the Players. I also roll dice out in the open and don't fudge rolls, but I might fudge an opponent's HPs or skills in the Players' favor. If I have to hide info, I use a clipboard and make sure I have a cover sheet hiding the information. If I need a rulebook for various charts or tables, I use a sticky note as a bookmark for that page or a cropped screen shot if I'm running online. At conventions, I arrive early to pick my spot for all my stuff and rearrange the chairs if necessary. I then layout all my stuff.
At conventions, where timing is important, I use a watch I can casually glance at to see what time it is and use it to compare to where the PCs are in the scenario, so I know whether to speed it up or slow down. I also have optional scenes I can throw in to lengthen the scenario if I'm running too fast, or know which scenes to drop if I'm running slow. I also don't unnecessarily lengthen a scenario, I'd rather end early than run out of time. I've been in games where the GM ran out of time and had to summarize the ending. The best part of most movies is the ending. How would you feel if instead of the climatic ending of a movie, you get a screen crawl summarizing the ending?
Call for 10 min breaks when you're stuck, so you can think about stuff and for people to use the bathroom or get food. Do this a few hours in or at a natural stopping point. Most convention games have at least one break after 2 or 3 hours.
For convention play or a one-shot (where PCs don't come back), I always allow the Players to do an epilogue for their PCs, a short sentence or paragraph as to what happens to their PC after the scenario ends and how the events have affected them or their lives. This gives some closure for the PC.
If you have to do more than one session because you didn't finish, try to stop at either a natural stopping point (after a reveal or end of combat) or a cliff hanger. Then schedule a follow-up session.
You can ask for feedback on what the Players liked or disliked and what you can do better (this is more for games at home or with your own group, not at a convention). At a convention, there might be feedback forms that are handed into the convention runners, not to the GM. Comments might be forwarded anonymously to the GM.
Pack up your stuff and leave the convention room as clean or cleaner than when you arrived.
I tried The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) in 2019 and finally got through all 4 books, mainly because I've been playtesting Cassilda's Song, a campaign for YKRPG.
Chambers wrote The King in Yellow in 1895. He introduced the ideas of the two act play, The King in Yellow, the Yellow Sign, masks, and connections to Carcosa, spawning the a whole mythology about The King in Yellow. Since then, The King in Yellow has been associated with the themes of mental viral memes (not called that at that time), surrealism, and dreams.
Paris is set in 1895 Paris with the PCs being American art students studying abroad. It's the Belle Époque period with Absinthe, Cezanne, Debussy, Rodin, etc. In this golden age, Impressionism flourished. Could the mind bending effects of The King in Yellow intruding into Paris at this time be the cause? I love the setting.
The Wars is set in 1947 Europe during a delayed WWI. The PCs are French soldiers fighting with HG Wells-ian and Jules Verne-ian weapons. Trench warfare, tripod tanks, poisonous gas, ornithopters, wireless typewriters, and strange creatures from Carcosa stalk the PCs. It is a war between the daughters of The King in Yellow. Europe is their chessboard.
Aftermath is set in modern day America (with stunted growth, a mid-1970s feel) after one of the two daughters of The King in Yellow has won their war, but finally overthrown. Various factions fight for control of a new free America. Remnants of the previous rule dot the land such as Suicide Booths, leftover Carcosan entities and artifacts. The PCs are members of the resistance who suddenly found themselves part of the new world order. This setting is based on Chamber's short story: The Repairer of Reputations.
This is Normal Now is set in a parallel modern day America where The Wars and Aftermath didn't happen. But The King in Yellow is slowly permeating reality using modern technology such as memes, the internet, the dark web, Instagram influencers, killer apps, and SRIs (Safety-Related Incidents). SRIs are Carcosan creature attacks which people don't talk about. Facing the SRIs causes mental instability, so there are apps for dealing with this cognitive dissonance. PCs are normal people pulled into the weirdness.
I did find it odd that in This is Normal Now there is advice for running the other time periods and how to run a interwoven campaign. The chapters: The Alien Truth, GM Masterclass, and Entanglement should have been in the Paris book. I strongly recommend reading these before running any of the books. There is also recommendations for linking various PCs from each time period, I'm not sure that's really necessary. As a Player, I would prefer to choose which Investigative Kit (occupation) to take in each book vs having it be dictated based on my choice in Paris, but Aftermath and This is Normal Now are connected as parallel universes, and it does add a dimension to the game if the two PCs have the same name and similar occupations.
In trying to link all 4 books into one campaign, there's a time travel thread that can be used, but I didn't quite like it. Having time travelers go to 1895 Paris just seems really odd to me. A very 12 Monkeys thing. They do recommend other ways to link the four settings. I personally prefer odd historical coincidences and dream connections instead.
Each book gives you a different game. Paris feels like Trail of Cthulhu for the Belle Époque period. The Wars is for those who want war stories. Aftermath is for those who are interested in struggling political factions. This is Normal Now feels like Trail of Cthulhu for the internet age.
There are some design philosophy clunkiness that I have issues with, mainly the Fight system (p.54 Paris). The roleplaying comes to a screeching halt every time I bring out the Fight Tracker (p.241 Paris). I do like the Relative Challenge Table (p.47 Paris, p.24 The Wars, p.19 Aftermath, p.12 This is Normal Now) and the QuickShock cards (though there are too many of them and are unwieldy to use).
The main strengths of the game are the various settings (time period, location, equipment, creatures). They easily engage my imagination on how to bring elements in an interesting fashion to my Players.
Overall, I quite enjoyed the game and do recommend it.
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