Masks of Nyarlathotep

Sunday, August 7, 2014: our group finishes "Masks of Nyarlathotep" after a 6-hour session. Last year, I had already posted a review of this campaign on Sens Critique, followed by a long version on this blog. Time has come to expand on that review. This post contains a summary of the campaign, some statistical information, and finally, various comments.

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Statistics

• The campaign played out over 30 sessions, spread across a little less than 2 years (07.10.2012 - 07.09.2014). We aimed for one session every three weeks, and it must be said the goal was met. A first!
• For the lol of it, 30 four-hour sessions make 120 hours of play.
• 5 players made up the original group, but it was reduced to 4 players immediately after the first session. The group regained its original size six months later, before dropping back to 4 players, then to 3 by early 2014. An intimate little ending.
• Of the three players who finished the campaign, one attended 29 of the 30 sessions. Their two colleagues played in every single one. A new record!
• On the PC side, no fewer than 21 characters set out on the trail of the Carlyle Expedition. 9 of them met death in brutal circumstances, 5 were withdrawn from the campaign when their players quit, and 2 succumbed to madness. Note that since the Trail of Cthulhu system was adopted in place of the official one, only one violent death occurred over more than a dozen sessions.

Although these figures mostly reflect how our group works, it is possible to extrapolate some general truths about "Masks of Nyarlathotep" from them.

The first is that the campaign is far too deadly for the game system offered by "Call of Cthulhu". We are talking about ten or so dead PCs — the equivalent of two entire groups — over fifteen sessions. And that is without using the full destructive potential of the "bad guys". The switch to the "Trail of Cthulhu" system was beneficial, giving everyone more control over events.

The second is that the campaign runs out of steam quickly. The players who jumped ship did so for reasons unrelated to tabletop RPGs, but they never showed any desire to rejoin the campaign along the way, even when they had the opportunity. That is a far cry from the enthusiasm generated by "Tian Xia" or the "Cinq Soleils".

The third is that this campaign is ultimately of average size: 30 sessions is half as many as "Tian Xia" took, and five fewer than the first half of the "Cinq Soleils". Here again, the years and its reputation have made "Masks of Nyarlathotep" a more imposing work than it really is, even though a campaign's length is not proportional to its quality.

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Summary

Below is a short summary of the campaign. It is not about romanticizing our adventures, but about offering a glimpse of how this campaign works for a group like any other. The details of almost every session can be found on our Wiki.

New York

Sessions 1-4. My impression: positive.

The various group members meet to follow up on the telegrams sent by Jackson Elias. These wannabe investigators discover the journalist's death and set off in pursuit of the culprits. They meet Anthony Cowles and his daughter, secure a meeting with Erica Carlyle, ignore the Sarah Morgan lead — deemed off-topic — and cultivate contacts in the police to get more information. Jonas Kensington is barely consulted, whereas Lieutenant Poole is heavily leaned on. Arthur Emmerson is questioned by the players, then murdered in a manner similar to Elias's. Following a game of hide-and-seek with the members of what they rightly suspected was an unholy cult, the PCs put the Ju-Ju House under surveillance and burst in during a monthly ceremony. A fight with an uncertain outcome follows; the group and two police squads manage to put an end to the sect's activities in New York. No deaths on the PC side, though a hospital stay was in order. They also recover most of this chapter's important documents, with the exception of the Carlyle collection.

London

Sessions 4-7. My impression: negative.

The characters land in London after some hesitation: some wanted to head to Australia based on the discovery of Huston's message at the Ju-Ju House. Upon arrival, they question Gavigan. The man serves them a textbook exercise in doublespeak. Though affable, he draws the group's suspicion: our heroes decide to burgle the Foundation that very evening. The burglary goes wrong, the infiltrating PC gets spotted, and a fight follows, from which two of the three characters present emerge badly wounded. Meanwhile, Gavigan reacts as the authors suggest, informing Tewfik of the troublemakers' arrival. Naturally, Tewfik uses his magic mirror and discovers the characters' location. He sends minions to deal with them. The players decide to storm Gavigan's place and head out at night despite their wounds. They run smack into Tewfik's men and manage to rout them at the cost of a few extra scrapes.

Uncertain about how to proceed, the players choose to follow up on the Miley lead. They visit his home, are greeted by his "mother", and discover the young artist's strange collection of paintings. Once again, the group decides to sneak into the house at night: they explore the place, find the suspicious painting in the attic closet as well as human remains in the cellar, and try to flee. Their lack of discretion earns them a tail: the Snake Man. He attacks them as they try to exit the cellar, causing the campaign's first PC loss. Back at their hotel, they quickly dry their tears and analyze the strange painting that had been hidden. One of the PCs gets sucked into the painting (as an aside: it was the second character of the bereaved player).

The group tries its luck with the police, follows the blue pyramid lead, and identifies a trio of minions more important than the others in Gavigan's service. Meanwhile, the cult doesn't sit idle: Tewfik sends men to search the PCs' belongings (they had picked a seedy, hence poorly guarded, hotel to avoid attracting attention) and Gavigan pins the burglary and the murder of his two employees on them. The PCs find themselves in a fine mess with the police: fortunately, the player who lost both his PCs creates an open-minded police officer who manages to convince his superior to let him investigate with the "suspects" backing him. The players eventually identify Tewfik and storm his place, where he was prepared for them. Two characters die during the confrontation, but the PCs set fire to the shop before fleeing. They fall back on the truck lead, which takes them to Misr House, where they recover evidence of the involvement of Gavigan, Tewfik and so many others in an unholy cult behind many murders. Gavigan and Tewfik flee to Africa. The PCs are cleared in a fair trial and set sail for Cairo.

Egypt (part 1)

Sessions 7-10. My impression: negative.

Arriving in Cairo, the group follows the Faraz Najir lead. The investigators then look for Auguste Loret, not without feeling watched by what they imagine to be members of the local cult. Loret leads them to the pyramids of Dashur, where they discover Nyarlathotep's throne room. Two characters perish in the scene that follows. The group finds John, the character who had been sucked into the painting in London: he traveled back in time and found a portal leading to Syria in 1919. Since then, he has waged guerrilla warfare against the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Feeling they have attracted too much attention, the PCs decide to leave Egypt and head straight for Kenya.

Kenya

Sessions 10-15. My impression: neutral.

The group travels to Mombasa via Port Said. They burst into Ajah Singh's place, massacre his employees, find his ledgers, and board the train to Nairobi. The train is attacked; the players choose to finish the journey on foot. After days of trekking through the jungle, they finally reach Nairobi and rent a hotel room. Of all the leads available, they focus on Endicott. The ghoul investigation ends in an improvised escape when the ghouls attack the Pavilion en masse, killing one PC (John) and gravely wounding two others.

Back in Nairobi, the group convinces some African Rifles to lend a hand in retaking the Pavilion grounds. The ghouls had deserted the place anyway. The PCs then turn to Kenyatta, who magically puts them on the right track. They meet Okumu, reach the Black Mountain while avoiding N'Dovu, explore the place and run into M'Weru, who takes the lives of two more characters. Worse for wear, the group tries to make it back to civilization and meets a disguised Gavigan, who had come to Kenya to attend the birth of Nyarlathotep's Spawn. Gavigan tries to overpower the group to use it against the Bloody Tongue cult, but the PCs manage to defend themselves thanks to the intervention of Jo the Silent, who had accompanied them since the Pavilion events. They search Gavigan's belongings, discover a personal journal revealing his resentment toward M'Weru, and choose to prevent the Spawn's birth. To do so, they return to Nairobi, convince some "friends" of Kenyatta (future Mau Mau) to join them, and make for the Mountain of the Black Wind. It takes grenades for them to finally blow up M'Weru and Hypathia Masters, before finishing off the Spawn embryo with hearty blows of an Egyptian scepter.

The group heads back to Nairobi, but is once again targeted by the two Singh brothers on the way. A character dies in the encounter. Despite this new bereavement and buoyed by their success, the players think it would make sense to return to Egypt to finish the job.

Egypt (part 2)

Sessions 15-20. My impression: mostly negative.

The group goes to the Cairo Museum. There they meet Kafour who, as the good quasi-omniscient NPC he is, serves them a fresh batch of information about the Black Pharaoh and Nitocris. The PCs then set off on the Clive expedition's trail: they offend Vanheuvelen while cultivating their relations with Bast, discover the broken stele of the Red Pyramid, understand Omar Shakti's true allegiance, and get manipulated by Clive, who manages to capture half the group. Through thick and thin, the survivors discover the tunnels under the Sphinx and barely manage to stop Nitocris's resurrection ceremony. This time the group is in a real bind: with no money and no papers, the survivors (surviving women, to be precise) flee to Australia by stowing away on a smugglers' ship.

Australia

Sessions 21-25. My impression: mostly positive.

After various twists and turns, the surviving women reach Sydney. They visit the museum, then meet up with the Cowles, with whom they spend a first night while Anthony visits his sister on the city's outskirts. The two are found dead the next day: everything suggests they fell victim to the "river murderer". The investigators make it their duty to solve this case. They distinguish the two killers' doings, befriend the Kooris, call on "Elenba Wanda" to drive the Bunyip to its final resting place, and let Seton slip away.

Without a second's delay, the group follows David Dodge's recommendations: heading for Port Hedland, Cuncudgerie, the death camp and finally the Underground City. Once at the City, the investigators encounter a Flying Polyp, beat a hasty retreat, explore the place for several days and finally confront Huston. He manages to fool them with his speech (they choose to leave him alive even though they had the opportunity to eliminate him). On the other hand, they free the Yithian, who requisitions their physical strength in exchange for a few pieces of information. The group thus spends several days clearing a passage to a building of obscure purpose, from which the Yithian emerges free of Huston's constraint. He offers to take them about ten days back in time, though such a journey through the fourth dimension is not without risk: knowing they are short on time, the group splits in two. Those who go back in time aim to reach China, while the last one has the heavy task of tracking down Kadaitcha and eliminating him.

China

Sessions 25-28. My impression: neutral.

The journey to China is a rough one: the investigators entrust themselves to the Randolph Line for the voyage, and narrowly escape a Deep One boarding party. They reach Shanghai in a lifeboat, on the verge of dehydration. Once there, a visit to the Stumbling Tiger yields nothing of interest. The Shanghai Museum, however, offers a few leads, including the list of Divination specialists in the city. The PCs meet Wing, then Jia Zhao and Lung, whom they manage to save at the last moment from the emissary of the Celestial Court. A stroke of luck also allows them to spot General Isoge, with whom they reach a surveillance agreement regarding Ho Fong, their designated target (enough documents accused him of being an ally of Shakti).

In doing so, the investigators set fire to a warehouse belonging to the Chinese businessman. Their actions attract Brady's attention; he meets them and puts them in touch with New China. Together, they plan to infiltrate Ho Fong's residence: inside, a stealthy investigator reaches the chapel, eliminates Choi Mei-Lin since saving her is not an option, then meets Stanford and Ho Fong. Isoge's unexpected arrival nevertheless allows her to escape, wounding the cult leader. Reprisals are swift: Ho Fong's men track down the troublemakers and capture one, forcing the other two to ally with Ling Tang Yu to rescue her (and bring back, in passing, a few precious tomes). As expected, their ally betrays them and tries to capture them in turn, but the characters manage to escape. The group lies low for a few days, until Brady and his allies finish translating the ritual to recreate an Eye of Light and Darkness. The PCs enchant a jade tablet, test its effectiveness near a group of cultists, and take advantage of the arrival of the ship "the Black Lady" to climb aboard and reach Grey Dragon Island. There, the eye is placed in the heart of the volcano's treasure chamber, forcing Penhew, the Shoggoth and the Deep Ones to flee and to devise a means of making the eye — and its creators — disappear...

The end

Sessions 29-30.

In Egypt, the characters captured by Clive have been tortured for weeks. The timely attack of John's last faithful on Shakti's residence gives them a chance to escape. They understand that Shakti has left to take M'Weru's place in opening the Great Gate in Kenya, and set off after him. Shakti intends to make up for the Spawn's stillbirth by summoning Yog-Sothoth, a deity described as capable of manipulating time and space. He has therefore built a tower atop the Mountain of the Black Wind. The characters present begin their climb toward the tower. At the summit, they manage to wipe out the bunch of bastards there: the Singh brothers and Winfield finally meet their end. Clive, alone, nevertheless completes the invocation of Yog-Sothoth but then retreats, calling Shakti to the rescue.

In Australia, the last PC present meets up with Dodge, Ewa and the Kooris who took part in the Bunyip banishment. They reveal Kadaitcha's plan: he is gathering the spirits of the Alcheringa around Ayers Rock, probably in order to bring them to the City. The group goes there and manages to take down the old sorcerer. Ewa and Dodge, the only characters still fighting fit, go to the City and wake the Flying Polyps to deliver the coup de grâce to the Cult of the Sand Bat.

In China, the Deep Ones choose to sacrifice themselves by standing guard within the Volcano, in small groups. They free a few prisoners and force them to search for the eye, since they cannot touch it themselves. The PCs and Brady burst in, gun down the Deep Ones, and more or less manage to sabotage the rocket while Penhew sails back to Shanghai aboard the Black Lady to raise reinforcements. When the portal opens a few days later, the two characters present in China choose to cross it to reach Kenya.

The complete group reaches the heart of the Mountain and cuts down Shakti, definitively ending the Opening ceremony.

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My review

What can I say that hasn't leaked through in this post or already been said in my previous review?

I would like to dwell on a point that bothered me enormously during this campaign, right from the second chapter: the antagonists are too powerful and too malevolent. They want the PCs dead and have the means to achieve it at any moment. When I think back on my previous GMing experiences, the potential antagonists in scenarios were either ambiguous enough not to want to demolish the characters outright, or too weak to do so at the snap of a finger. For anyone running Masks, the big question is forever: "where do I stop?". In London, we are talking about a hundred evil cultists who can know the group's location at any moment. In Egypt, we are talking about an immensely wealthy, immortal sorcerer-turned-businessman who controls the political world, aided by a horde of fanatics present in every stratum of society. In Kenya, we are talking about 20,000 cultists, a witch with 400 magic points, and the child of a God. China, by contrast, almost feels like a rest stop with its multiple opposing factions that can be played off one another. As for Australia, if you don't simply cut certain passages, you will end up with several automatic party massacres. There is a difference between "instilling a feeling of fear" and "butchering PCs for free", but this campaign absolutely fails to grasp it.

What can the PCs do to resist? Learn magic, of course! Quite aside from the risk of turning Cthulhu into a run-of-the-mill Fantasy game where fireballs and deadly bolts are traded around, this option is not one. The Call of Cthulhu system in no way allows PCs to learn spells during this campaign.

To demonstrate:

• First, you need to get your hands on a Mythos tome and know its language. As a reminder, this campaign's important books are written in Arabic, Greek, Ancient Egyptian and Chinese. Chances are a PC will have at least one of these languages, but that already limits the group's options.
• To earn the right to get anything out of it, you must rack up 7 days of reading (8h EDIT: 4h-6h per day). Right there, that's a problem when you are constantly being chased by nasties.
• Now you must roll to get anything out of it. The roll in question is an opposed check: the PC's Library Use vs the book's Complexity. This campaign's interesting tomes are quite often cryptic, meaning a 90% success chance for the book. You subtract the book's success from the PC's.
• If the PC succeeds, one (sometimes two) Cthulhu Mythos points are gained. For a spell, a special success is required.

Knowing that a buffed PC sits at around 70% in Library Use, we can estimate the odds of gaining one spell at roughly 2.5% per attempt. Spell learning is one example among many of the system's inconsistencies with this campaign's technical data. One could also cite the undrinkable stats of most of the thugs who go after the group (damage bonus +2, 12-15 hit points... it's a good thing their attack skills are terrible).

Summary so far: both the scenario and the system condemn the players to rolling up new characters every two sessions on average. And that is if the GM is kind and avoids putting her fellow players off the game.

Alongside this, the campaign's appeal fades fast. When I think back on the first chapter and compare it with the end of the campaign, it feels like a beautiful waste: Sans Détour did quality work, providing plenty of information to recreate the charm of the destinations visited, but that aspect quickly becomes secondary when everyone is swamped by the hideous monsters and the gang of lunatics chasing the group. As a result, only the calmer passages really let us enjoy the atmosphere: New York, the Bunyip investigation, possibly the bit with Vanheuvelen and the one with Endicott. That's not much.

The campaign's high points are also difficult to stage. I am thinking in particular of the Birth of Nyarlathotep's Spawn, which the PCs must attend. In general, when players take part in such an event, they try something unless the scene forces them to be spectators (which is not the case, at least by default). As the GM, I had the choice between slaughtering the characters present (bearing in mind that two characters had died in the previous session) or arbitrarily limiting the antagonists' violence so as to give the players the feeling of being useful. I chose the second option, so the Spawn was never born. The campaign had strictly nothing planned as a replacement, as if it were obvious that the PCs could not prevent the birth.

To make matters worse, I also bear my share of the blame in how this campaign played out. Between my haphazard reading of the plans (essential though they were) and my haste to push the story forward so it wouldn't bog down (Brady ran into the group far too quickly), the players probably missed out on some memorable moments that could have improved the picture.

The fact remains that we finished this campaign: that is proof enough that it has very real qualities, chief among them generous content and, above all, a freedom served by the book's ingenious modular structure. In that regard, the China section was telling. It was possible to improvise an entire session off the back of a player's ill-timed critical failure. Everything followed naturally, with nothing originally planned: the capture of a PC, the alliance with Tang Yu, the old lecher's attempts to keep the (all-female) PCs for his harem, etc. This "toolbox" approach partly makes up for the scenario's lack of interest and its absence of high points.

My conclusion will remain broadly similar to last year's, albeit a bit more negative. "Masks of Nyarlathotep" is a campaign whose roots are old. Too old. Running it is no easy task, and there are many adventures — in Call of Cthulhu and in other tabletop RPGs alike — that deserve far more of your interest. Sans Détour should try their hand at writing an original campaign, so as to break free from a rancid base material that contrasts with the quality of their own contributions.

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If you still want to run "Masks of Nyarlathotep", I can only recommend the Roliste.tv episodes on the campaign. The host has plenty of mileage and can offer very practical advice to make certain problematic passages more interesting (say, the Bent Pyramid section).

• Part 1
• Part 2: New York
• Part 3: London
• Part 4: Cairo
• Part 5: Kenya
• Part 6: Australia
• Part 7: Shanghai
• Part 8: Finale

Lastly, you will find some comments on this article on the forum. Feel free to add your own!