Rip It & Run: Scübidüberisms!

“...And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!”

-The oft-heard complaint of Ne’er-Do-Wells

One of the mainstays of life is the fact that we have to take the rough with the smooth. There’s that old chestnut that we don’t know the heights of our joy unless we taste the depths of our despair. We are enjoined, it seems, to compare and contrast experiences weighing each against the other to gain a full comprehension of our existences.

What does this have to do with playing Call of Cthulhu? I’m glad you asked.

A well-run campaign of CoC leads its protagonists through a winding maze of clues and discoveries, taking them on a journey into the most hidden recesses of black and disturbing realities. Ideally, this trail towards madness should be gradual and slow to build up, piling pebble upon pebble until the barge of our heroes’ worldview sinks irrevocably beneath the waters of insanity. In planning a rich tale of slow-building suspense however, sometimes we rush too quickly from adventure to adventure and leap headlong into an inevitable – and irreversible – conclusion.

A wise Keeper will create tales which can be slipped in among the chapters of an ongoing campaign to act as buffers or brakes in the investigating party’s exposure to mind-searing revelations. Many of these adventures will contain little or no supernatural or Mythos-related elements at all; nevertheless, in the hands of a skilled storyteller, they may well still scare the pants off the players.

Part of the effort that goes into presenting such scenarios – which I call “Scübidüberisms” - is the ability to mask the goings-on behind a facade of distinct supernatural possibility. That is, the lead-up to the exposing of the mundane reality behind the strange events has to be masked behind a convincing layer of special effects. What I’m talking about, most simply stated, is mood.

In most of these kinds of tales, there is a large sector of humanity which has a fervent belief in, or a vested interest in, there being an acceptance of the strange events that are taking place. To this end, they will construct rumour, or stage happenings, to reinforce that belief wherever possible. Reputations and income-generation are often at stake here, so Investigators should step carefully in exposing the lies. Sometimes opposition to the players’ investigation is not malicious; tradition is simply, very often, a difficult thing to let go of.

In short, the NPCs are the best ammo that the Keeper has against the Investigators. Their determination and motivations in maintaining the status quo should be clearly kept in mind during the running of these adventures. Local witchdoctors often rely on a superstitious community to keep themselves fed and clothed; smugglers often depend upon the rumours surrounding local seaside ruins to keep sightseers away. With ulterior motives like these at work, Investigators may find themselves hip-deep in the sort of hot water that, while not of supernatural origin, is no less deadly for it.

The apparent supernatural elements contained within such stories all turn out to be carefully constructed theatrics designed to dupe the uninitiated as to the presence of bogeys and other fell creatures. Sometimes these are one-off events to cover a particular nefarious act; at other times the special effects are designed to maintain an ongoing result. Either way, the Keeper needs to be even-handed in dealing with these scenarios.

For starters, this type of tale is not an ‘us against them’ arrangement between the Keeper and their players. The Keeper must remember to let clues as to what is actually going on percolate through the narrative so that the Investigators will be able to figure things out by themselves. Without these breadcrumbs along the trail, the revelation at the conclusion will be hollow and appear to be an instance of ‘Keeper grandstanding’ which may stroke the referee’s ego, but will not have players coming back for more.

True, the Keeper needs to keep the mystery going for as long as possible; however, when the clues come together and the answer is plain for all to see, the wrap-up needs to cut in and the cards need to be revealed. It’s best in these circumstances for the Keeper to let the Investigators explain how it was all done, possibly to a gob-smacked and appreciative audience of NPCs, and jumping in with details - where appropriate - to plug any holes in their rationales.

Life is not always champagne and chocolates; occasionally we need a good solid dose of meat-and-potatoes to keep things in balance. A wise Keeper knows this is sound advice for their ongoing campaign as well.